A Different World
by acreativename
Summary: In the past, Zor-El tried to take over Earth but was vanquished. In the present, a young Clark grows up in a world where people aren't particularly fond of Kryptonians.
1. Chapter 1

**This is only my second fanfic, and I barely started my first but I decided to stop that one because it was kind of failing to lift off the ground. So here's something new. Here's the background for this story: About ten years before Clark was born (so around mid-70's), Zor-El decided to attempt to take over Earth. He caused a fair bit of damage before Jor-El came to Earth to stop him. It was basically a battle of epic proportions between the two, and anything that came in their path was destroyed. Eventually, Jor-El defeated his brother and returned to Krypton, and everything else occurred as normal… Krypton exploded, Jor-El sent his son to Earth. This fanfic takes place when Clark is growing up. His life proceeds similarly to the way it proceeds on Smallville, with one big exception: people know that Kryptonians exist, and are not particularly fond of them. This means that Clark's secret is now an even bigger secret, and when people find out about his secret they have much stronger reactions than they did on the actual show.**

**Smallville, 1989:**

Martha and Jonathan Kent were having a cheerful discussion as they calmly drove back to their quaint farmhouse. And that's when it hit. The first meteor shower of Smallville.

Neither Martha nor Jonathan really understood what was happening at first; they supposed it just hadn't really registered in their minds at that moment that this was something dangerous. Martha pointed up in the sky, her mouth opening in awe, and wondered, "What's that?"

And then, with an earth-shattering crash, the couple was brought to reality. A meteor struck the Welcome to Smallville sign behind them. It was obliterated and slivers of wood flew everywhere. Suddenly, meteors were coming from every direction.

"What's happening, Jonathan?" Martha cried in panic.

Then, an enormous meteor had struck the road right in front of them. Jonathan swerved to miss the crater, but he couldn't see his way through the thick dust that now engulfed them. Everything else happened in a blur, it seemed.

Martha felt her stomach drop as their pickup truck rolled over. She must have blacked out for a bit, because when she came to, she was hanging upside down in the overturned truck, and most of the dust had cleared. She didn't hear any more booms; the meteor shower must have ended.

Then, she heard her husband's voice. "Martha?"

She turned her head towards Jonathan. Beyond him, she glimpsed a young boy, just a toddler, crouched down, looking into the car. He had a dark brown hair and a serene smile on his face.

In a bit, both Martha and Jonathan somehow scrambled their way out of the truck. The young boy sat there, silently, looking up at them. Martha realized that he wasn't wearing any clothes, so she carefully reached into the back seat of the truck and took out a red blanket, which she wrapped around him.

He seemed a little confused; he looked up at her again with his innocent child-like eyes, and Martha's heart broke at the thought that he might have lost his parents in the meteor shower and was all alone.

She picked the little boy up and held him, and as he smiled, she smiled back. Something about the look in his eyes was very engaging. Martha gazed longingly at him; she had always wanted to have a son. And now, she was holding a beautiful baby boy in her arms. She wished she could keep him.

Jonathan suggested that they find the road in hopes of finding someone that could help them, and Martha followed her husband, still carrying the little boy. Unfortunately, the next thing they found was not the road. The sight before them made Martha's heart skip a beat.

It was a spaceship.

Martha and Jonathan looked at each other, both horrified. A spaceship meant an alien, and the last aliens to come to Earth had not exactly been friendly.

The Kryptonians, Martha recalled. Two extremely powerful Kryptonian brothers who had seemingly fought endlessly for control of the Earth, destroying everything in their path. Just one had enough power to destroy the world; two had been a disaster.

Her favourite cousin, almost like a sister to her, had been killed at that time, not to mention countless numbers of her friends. It had been a dark time for the world. She hated the Kryptonians. They had no right to invade the planet like that, but they had nonetheless. And now, as she gaped at this unearthly aircraft, she realized the threat was again upon her, and the world.

"It doesn't look very big…" Jonathan muttered beside her. Shaken out of her reverie, Martha now realized this to be true. A spaceship like this couldn't carry a full-grown Kryptonian; it looked like it would only fit something the size of a toddler, or smaller.

She looked speculatively at the young boy she cradled in her arms and back at the ship, and at that moment, the pieces clicked together in her head. By the looks of it, Jonathan had also just come to the same conclusion.

Martha was horrified. She looked down at the boy in her arms and he smiled up at her. In her head, maternal feelings were warring with utter revulsion. Was she carrying –comforting – an _alien_? One of _them?_

They were evil, the aliens, just evil, and they would always be that way. But… this little boy didn't exactly look evil. But what if it was a trick? What if he just _looked_ innocent to make her love him and was conspiring to hurt her? But that seemed ridiculous; how could a toddler make up evil plans? It was a preposterous thought.

She had sudden thought of anger; they had tried to destroy Earth so long ago, and now they sent a new one here? They had killed so many people; she ought to do to them what they did to humanity. Her glare faltered, though, as she looked down again at the toddler.

The little boy looked up at Martha with adoration, and then suddenly, another thought struck her: did he think she was his mother? For a few whole seconds, she completely forgot that he was an alien, and her heart glowed. A son.

But then Jonathan spoke and she was brought back to reality. "What…" he began hesitantly, "What are we going to do with him?"

Martha wasn't entirely sure she was making the right decision, but the looks that the little boy gave her were just pulling at her heartstrings. "For now… we'll take him home."

Jonathan opened his mouth to protest, but Martha cut across him before he could speak.

"I don't think he means any harm to us… I don't think he even knows what's going on… but, if anything happens, we can always… oh I don't know. We can figure something else out later. But we can't just leave him here…"

Jonathan's mouth closed in a hard line. Martha could tell he thought she was wrong. However, he seemed to accept what she had said, and they traveled towards the road to find a way home.

* * *

Clark was homeschooled until the third grade. He was a fairly responsible young boy growing up, however, and when he was eight, his parents thought that he was ready for the real world.

Finally, Clark had thought. He was really excited to start the third grade and meet new people. Up until this point, he had been sheltered away from the world. Now, he felt like he was finally able to enter life.

His parents had drilled one thing into his mind: don't do anything strange. Clark had abilities unlike any other person. He was very strong and very fast. His parents had told him that if people saw him using his abilities, they might be upset. Clark didn't know why… it wasn't like he was going to hurt anyone, but he had always obeyed his parents. The only people in the entire world that knew of Clark's abilities were Clark and his parents.

Clark didn't know why he had these special abilities. He didn't know where they came from. Lately he had become curious to find out, but whenever he asked his parents why he was so strong and fast, they just told him that he was "special".

Clark didn't like being "special". As he had grown a little older, he had realized that being "special" had kept him out of school. Being "special" had kept him away from the world. His parents were afraid he would use his abilities in front of someone. But now he was older, and knew how to keep his secret. And now he got to start the third grade.

The first few weeks of school passed by in a flash. Clark made some good friends, including a boy named Pete Ross who lived a few streets down from him. Clark was intelligent and excelled in all of his subjects. In general, he was quite happy.

It was early October already when Clark heard about the Kryptonians for the first time.

He was playing with Pete at recess when he caught of few words of a conversation some of his classmates were having.

"…told me that if you're bad, the Kryptonians are going to get you!" The speaker's friends looked up at him, half in horror, half in awe.

Clark turned to Pete. "What's a Kryptonian?"

Pete gaped at him, and amazed look on his face. "You don't know what a Kryptonian is?"

"Well… no." Clark shrugged, feeling a little self-conscious at his lack of knowledge. **(I find this situation very ironic** **)**

"Wow, I've never even heard of someone who doesn't know what a Kryptonian is before. I mean, _everyone_ knows about the Kryptonians that came twenty years ago."

"Why?" Clark wondered aloud. Pete's dramatic tone made him fascinated. "What did they do?"

"Well…the Kryptonians are…" Pete lowered his voice for dramatic effect, "_aliens_."

Clark raised his eyebrows. "Aliens?"

"Yeah. They came to Earth in the mid-70's –"

"A lot of them?"

"No, only two," Pete responded.

"Two?" Clark scoffed. "How much harm could two of them do?"

"Uh, a _lot_, considering they were super strong, super fast, could shoot fire out of their eyes and _fly_."

Clark gaped.

"Yeah, _fly_," Pete repeated with a smug expression on his face. "So, yes, they _could_ do a lot of damage. Anyway, this one alien person came and he was like 'I am Zor-El, kneel before me', and then he made everyone obey him by using his powers. Wherever he went, he left this weird mark… it looked like an S in a pentagon, or something like that. And apparently he actually got control over a whole ton of countries, but he killed a lot of people on the way. And _then_, a _new_ Kryptonian came along, named Jor-El, and he started fighting Zor-El. And apparently, their fight was really destructive, like an entire war on its own, and a lot of people died. But then… one day, they just both disappeared, and no one knew what had happened, but they were happy. Well, that's the story my mom told me, because I wasn't actually alive yet when it happened."

There was a pause. Pete was grinning at Clark, clearly seeking appraisal for his dramatic story.

Finally Clark spoke. "You're kidding, right?"

Pete looked impatient. "Clark, ask an adult. They'll tell you it's true."

Clark paused again. "That's the truth…" he mused.

When Clark got home that day, he had a lot of questions. Who, exactly, were the Kryptonians? Sure, he'd gotten the general answer to that question from Pete, but he wanted to know more. He knew that his parents would know, and brought up his question at dinnertime that evening.

"Who were the Kryptonians?"

His parents both froze, and then they looked at each other. Quickly enough, they regained their composure.

"Kryptonians?" his father asked.

Clark frowned. "I know you know who they were; Pete told me that everyone knows who they are. Everyone but me, of course."

Clark's mother spoke, and Clark heard a cold edge to her voice that he hadn't heard before. "The Kryptonians were some… _people_ that fought a war that could have destroyed the planet. They killed a lot of innocent people."

"But what happened?"

"Clark," his mother said sternly, "I'm not going to talk any more about that topic, Ok?"

"Fine," Clark grumbled. Clearly he wasn't getting any answers from his parents.

But he continued to be curious. That weekend, he biked to the library and searched for books on Kryptonians. There were a _lot_. How had he never known about the Kryptonians before? Considering how famous – or infamous – they were, it seemed strange that he had never heard about them before this year.

He picked a fat book called "Kryptonian Occupation" and read through it at super speed. He shocked at the detail of the events that had happened during the so-called "Kryptonian Occupation". He saw shocking pictures of parts of the world that had been destroyed in the battle between the Kryptonian brothers.

He finally closed the book, horrified. Who were these… _creatures?_ Why would they want to destroy the Earth in such a way? He was glad they had disappeared; he couldn't even imagine what the world would be like if they were still here. Completely destroyed, probably.

After reading the book, Clark understood the full power of the Kryptonians, and that scared him. They were scary. How could humans ever face that?

As the school year went by, Clark continued to hear more and more tidbits of information about the Kryptonians, and he learned more and more about their occupation.

To children, it seemed like the Bogeyman was reincarnated in the Kryptonian. The alien became the scary creature that children watched out for at night. It became the scary creature that Clark watched out for at night.

He hoped that he never, ever met a Kryptonian.

**And that's chapter one! You can probably already see where this is heading… So, how is it? Should I continue?**

**Please review so that I can get some feedback. Ta ta for now!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two. I kind took a while to update this, but this chapter is more than twice as long as the previous one. It just sort of mushroomed on me.**

It was late August in 2001. Clark was soon to start high school. It seemed to Martha that he didn't really know what to think of a starting a new chapter in his life.

It seemed like things had gone by so fast since she and Jonathan had found Clark in that cornfield. Clark had grown so much; he had grown mentally and emotionally, but most of all vertically. Martha admitted, with a small grin, that she was a little jealous… she knew women were ordinarily shorter than men, but she was short for a woman. Clark was so tall… surely he didn't have a few inches to spare?

He had always been a little tall for his age, but in his youth, it was by an inch or two at most. He had been reasonably slight, actually, until he was around twelve. His (made-up) birthday hit that year and then he just shot up. And not just vertically, either. He grew a broad pair of shoulders and a hefty amount of muscle that most men would only get by attending the gym religiously. It was fitting, though, Martha thought, considering how strong he was. Before, when he was younger and smaller, it was harder to gauge the extent of his power. It was almost shocking to see so much power come out of such a small body. But Clark was definitely not small now, no way.

It was a comforting sign, to Martha, when Clark grew tall. It was so ordinary, so human. It was familiar… or rather, not alien. Kryptonians went through puberty just like humans. Martha felt a stronger motherly connection to Clark when he acted human. She supposed that she could just relate to him better. She still loved him either way, but she preferred to look at him as a human. It was easier to love him that way.

She knew that Clark, himself, was a good person, just like Jonathan. He had a heart of pure gold. She had raised him with Jonathan, and she had absolute trust in the fact that he would never act like the other Kryptonians. But still, when he used his abilities, it was hard not to think about them.

When he did something so impossibly inhuman, she thought back to those days when the aliens had come and shuddered. She hated her reaction to his abilities. She wished she could just let those thoughts go, but the simple truth was, she couldn't. It was like a fear of Kryptonians had been branded into her brain. She knew she wasn't alone; there were so many people on this planet that feared them as well, but most people didn't have the experience of raising one. Most humans didn't know what a sweet and kind boy a Kryptonian could grow up to be; most of them didn't have to deal with an internal battle of fear and love. They just knew one side of the story, living happily with only fear. 'Living happily with only fear', what an oxymoron. But it was true; Martha had so much inner turmoil over her son, sometimes she just didn't know what to do. Sometimes she thought it would be easier to live with just the fear.

It wasn't Clark himself she feared, of course. Clark was the sweet and gentle boy that she had raised and she loved with all her heart. Martha truly believed that his mind was more human than Kryptonian. What she feared was the immense amount of power his body could wield. It didn't seem right. It was frightening, that one person could have so much power. And things weren't getting easier for her, because it seemed that lately, Clark had just been getting stronger and faster by the day.

When he was five, he had lifted up the kitchen table. It was a heavy, solid thing, and Martha and Jonathan were shocked. The two of them together would have had trouble lifting that table.

At ten, just to test his strength, he had lifted up Jonathan's red pickup truck. He was able to proudly carry it over his head for a few seconds, but it was easy to see he was straining. Now, he could pick up a large tractor without even breathing heavily.

And Clark's speed had increased considerably as well. From the time the Kents had found him, he could already run faster than any human. Just as a three-year-old, he could speed away at 45 kilometres an hour (30mph) if he wanted to. In two years, his speed had doubled. By the time he started the third grade, he could run at 150kph (93.2mph). Now, he could run faster than any man-made machine. He could travel a long distance in a matter of seconds.

It frightened Martha that Clark was getting so powerful. It seemed like more and more, his abilities were playing a big role in his life. He used his powers for a lot of everyday things, like doing chores and homework. Martha supposed that his abilities did come in quite handy – things ran quite efficiently around the farm – but she still didn't like to see them anyway. She couldn't exactly stop Clark from using his abilities, though, they were a part of who he was. Using his powers was normal for him. Telling him to stop using them would be like someone telling her to stop walking. It was natural for her to walk, and it was natural for Clark to use his abilities. Martha hated this fact, because she disliked his abilities so much. If they were a part of him, then, really, what did that make him?

She hated when her mind went down these paths. It was like it was trying to get her to doubt her son. She didn't doubt her son, she doubted his ancestry. She was scared that Clark was getting more and more powerful because she felt his Kryptonian side was starting to take over him. Would he grow stronger and faster infinitely? Would it ever end? Martha didn't know what she really hoped for… she wanted it to end, but she was worried what the cause would be. What if Clark's growth ended when he finally became a true Kryptonian, mind as well as body? She was desperately worried about this… she didn't want to lose her son to a monster. Clark, as he was, would never hurt anyone, but who knows what could happen in the future?

Martha shook her head, physically trying to get rid of her thoughts. She couldn't think this way. She had to be optimistic. After the Kryptonians had disappeared so long ago, she had vowed to as optimistic as she could… at that time there was too little optimism in the world. She would personally make her world better by seeing the good things in life and not the bad. There were so many good things about Clark. He was intelligent, handsome and kind; high school girls would just fall all over him, she thought with a little smirk. He was _her_ son, no matter where he was born. She loved him, and she knew that he loved her back just as much. He was engaging and humorous, sometimes devilishly so. She was the butt of some witty short jokes. And Clark was such a good son. He never caused any trouble, rarely talked back and always did his chores and homework diligently. And most of all, Clark cared for people. He cared for everyone, really. If there was someone in danger, you could bet that Clark would be there to save them.

Martha thought fondly of Clark, now. Where had all of these years gone? She remembered Clark when he was just a toddler, with sparkling eyes and an overwhelming curiosity about the world. She'd had immediate motherly feelings for him. She recalled the day when she and Jonathan first brought him home.

"We can't keep him, Martha," Jonathan had told her.

"I know," she responded, a little wistfully. When they first brought him home, they weren't sure exactly what they were going to do with him. He hadn't exhibited any special abilities yet, at that point… Martha had begun to doubt that he really was an alien after all. What if he actually was just someone's child that got lost? They had to find his parents. But too soon it became painfully obvious that the little boy they had brought home was not among those born on Earth.

It was the television set. Once they had gotten home, Jonathan had turned on the TV to find out the news about the meteor shower. Clark had gaped at the swirling colours and he had run towards the set, at a speed that was impossible for his size. He tried to see what was behind the screen and unintentionally smashed the glass. There wasn't a single cut on his hands. Martha and Jonathan knew, then, that they were dealing with a Kryptonian.

They were extremely doubtful about Clark at first. He seemed so cheerful, but they went rigid when they looked at him, as if he were a bomb that could explode at any minute. They were extremely fearful of his abilities, but their fear could only extend so far, because the truth was, he was an extremely adorable little boy. He was affectionate, he was curious. He wanted to learn. The Kents could tell that he was frustrated with the hindrance of not being able to speak English. He could only communicate with his eyes, really.

He spoke for the first time on the day that the Kents found him, but whatever language came out of his mouth was most certainly not English. It was the Kryptonian language, Martha assumed, what else could it be? It made her nervous. She didn't know what this little boy was saying… for all she knew he could be saying bad things about her. But she doubted it. Something in his face just made her believe that malice was a foreign idea to him.

That was back when they were still unsure of him, though. That was when Martha thought she wouldn't be able to keep this boy.

But then something happened. Sheriff Ethan had come by the house and Jonathan had instructed her to hide Clark so they didn't have to explain him. But Clark was strong and had managed to escape from his hiding place into the living room… and he ran right in front of Sheriff Ethan.

Martha and Jonathan thought up a quick lie; the only one that seemed suitable for this situation. They said they were adopting.

Sheriff Ethan asked what the boy was named, and that was when the little boy got his name. "Clark," Martha had supplied. It was her maiden name, the first thing that came to mind, but somehow, it just stuck.

They knew after telling that story to the man who knew everyone in town, they were going to have to stick with it. But they were both starting to warm up to Clark anyway.

Nonetheless, it took a lot of getting used to, raising a Kryptonian. At the time, Martha couldn't believe she was in this situation.

And that started their dealings with Lionel Luthor. That always made her feel dirty. It made Jonathan feel dirty, too. She didn't want to think about the Luthors now, though. They didn't have a place in Clark's life.

Martha and Jonathan were a bit scared of Clark, at first. They were scared of what he might do. They were scared he would hurt them.

He did, in fact, hurt Jonathan once, but not on purpose. He was still quite little and he wanted to play, so he grabbed Jonathan by the arm and yanked it down. Martha remembered hearing quite a loud shout, and she raced in to find him. Clark looked shocked and immediately let go of Jonathan. When he saw the pain his father was in, he began to cry.

Jonathan was lucky that Clark wasn't as strong then as he was now. Now, Martha felt that Clark could have easily ripped his arm straight from his torso, if he had wanted to. Jonathan ended up with a dislocated shoulder, nothing more. Clark was very gentle from then on.

Martha laughed as she remembered the good parts about raising Clark. He had quite an appetite. He ate enough for two people; it was only fitting that his first (English) word was 'carrot'.

Clark learned quickly. Very soon, he learned how to speak English fluently, and made good use of it. He learned to read, too. At dinner he would spew out whatever random new thing he had learned that day and proudly wait for Jonathan and Martha to respond to what he had said.

"Did you know," he said in an excited voice one dinnertime, "that Americans, on average, eat _18 acres_ of pizza a day? Isn't that _so much_?" His eyes sparkled.

"Wow…" Martha responded in that sort of mock-interested voice adults give to children. "That's a lot of pizza."

"Yeah, I know. You know what else?" And this would go on for some time.

When Clark learned English, the Kryptonian language started to fade away, until speaking it was a rarity. Clark still muttered the language in his sleep, although consciously, he no longer understood it. This made Martha feel happy. It was one more thing to separate him from his ancestry.

Martha and Jonathan didn't tell Clark about the Kryptonians. They didn't tell him he was from another planet. Martha supposed it was wishful thinking, on her part, because she wanted Clark to believe he was human. But of course, she knew she couldn't keep the Kryptonians a secret from him for too long. He had never really known of them when he was homeschooled; the Kents had made sure of that.

But then, Clark begged to go to school, and he seemed so lonely that the Kents finally gave in. And of course, it was in the third grade, his first grade of actual school, that he found out about the Kryptonians.

He brought them up one dinnertime after school.

"Who were the Kryptonians?" he had asked, his voice coloured with its usual overload of curiosity.

Martha and Jonathan had both frozen. The word 'Kryptonian' hadn't been mentioned in their household for quite a while. Martha could tell the same thought ran through both of their heads: did he know? Had he found out he was a Kryptonian?

But he hadn't, it turned out. He had just heard the word at school and wondered what it meant. Martha didn't supply him with much of an answer to his question, but of course Clark, being as curious as he was, found out who the Kryptonians were anyway. And he promptly developed a hatred for them that rivalled her own.

It was ironic, in a bitter sort of way, how Clark then hated Kryptonians so much. He still did now; he had heard the horror stories and taken them to heart. It made Martha wonder how he would react when he found out he actually was _one_ of them. She wished, in a way, that he hadn't developed such a strong hatred so it would be easier for him to accept the truth. Because, truthfully, no matter how long she stalled, no matter how many lies she told Clark about his abilities, one day he was going to figure out the truth, and he wouldn't be happy.

But when would it happen? Martha, in the past, had considered that thirteen or fourteen might be a good age to finally tell Clark the truth, but now that it was here…

She was worried about Clark's reaction. She knew he would feel pain. Uncovering the secret of his heritage would turn his whole world upside down. How could she do that to him?

But the secret was going to get out sooner or later. And the real question was, when was it going to happen?

* * *

**So a lot of this section right here is a recap of the pilot episode of Smallville, so this particular part of the story is clearly not my original work. But I thought that it was necessary just to set up the events that happen, since I am following the general plot of Smallville. There is no dialogue in this section because I was unsure about just copying dialogue from the show… **

September came along in a flash, it seemed. Clark's first week of high school was, all things considered, fairly quiet. It wasn't until Tuesday of the second week that things began to get interesting.

In the morning, Clark did his usual computer scan for people with strange and unusual abilities. He had no idea why he was so different than other people and constantly searched for others that were like him. It made him feel a little less lonely. He skimmed through the internet pages, his eyes flashing back and forth three times a second.

'Six year old Korean boy lifts car off injured father'. He desperately hoped it was true and not some hoax.

By the time he left his house, he found the school bus had left without him. He ran after it, to try to catch it, but to no avail. Well, this was one of those opportunities where having special abilities really came in handy. He grinned, and then sped off to school faster than the eye could follow.

There, he met Pete and Chloe, who were both very surprised to see him, considering they had seen him miss the bus.

Chloe was more suspicious than Pete. How had Clark gotten to school so fast? What had happened?

Clark smiled. Chloe had always been like this, ever since he had first met her… which wasn't too long ago. It was just in the eighth grade that he first met her. Chloe and her father had moved from Metropolis, and Chloe was in his homeroom class. She had immediately walked up to Clark and asserted that she did not approve of Smallville. She was destined for the big city, Clark realized, and felt cooped up in a small town. He was rather taken aback by her for a while. She had enough personality for two – no, five people, and Clark hadn't really known how to respond to it at first.

But as he got to know her better, he learned that she was just one of those people who were eager to find out all the secrets of the world… and she didn't think these secrets lay in a boring town like Smallville. Well, at least not until recently, it seemed. Suddenly she'd been going on about mutants, or something. She was a born reporter; she loved to sniff out a good story, no matter how strange it seemed. And she didn't even really care about the reader response, as long as she felt she had written an interesting article. Investigate and expose, that's the way Chloe worked, and it was the way Chloe would always be.

Pete just laughed at Chloe. He was much less curious about the world than she was. He just wanted to gain as much popularity as possible through his 'high school career'.

Clark turned his head for a moment, and his eyes fell on the Lana. The girl next door, and the girl that he senselessly loved. He walked towards her, slowly feeling more and more nauseous with every step. He knew the sick feeling was coming from the meteor rocks.

He had discovered meteor rocks for the first time on a fishing trip with his dad. Clark found that whenever he went near the water, he felt nauseous. If he got closer, he felt a dull ache all over, and even closer, outright pain.

Both Clark and his father were shocked. They had both assumed that nothing could hurt Clark. Needless to say, the fishing trip was short.

Lana had a necklace made of meteor rock that made Clark sick whenever he went near her.

Then, as Clark continued to walk, the meteor rock started to become a little too much for him, and he fell over.

Lana raced towards him to help him. Her meteor rock necklace was small, but it was enough that when Clark was in close proximity to her, he felt like he had one hell of a bad headache, and stomach ache, and every other sort of ache he could imagine. He hated to think of what it would feel like if he got any closer to a meteor rock. It most likely wouldn't be the most enjoyable thing in the world.

Lana helped him with his books. Clark had trouble responding to the things she said. As she leaned towards him, her necklace swung forward and he felt like he was going to throw up.

When he finally got his books together, Lana's boyfriend, Whitney, came along. Clark wasn't particularly fond of Whitney. Clark tried to see the best in everyone, and he knew that Whitney was probably a good guy in many ways, but all he really saw was a football player with a big ego. Maybe he was just jealous because Whitney was Lana's boyfriend.

Clark carefully perched himself on a railing, holding his books and leaning over in pain. Suddenly, Whitney noticed a lone book on the ground, and tossed it back to Clark.

Attempting the catch the book being thrown at him, Clark let go of all the other books and fell to the ground in the effort. He didn't really blush, but if he did his cheeks would be burning. He felt so embarrassed. He always embarrassed himself in front of Lana, and all because of that stupid meteor rock. He wished the meteor rocks just didn't exist.

Whitney and Lana just walked away.

Clark felt bad for the rest of the day. Maybe it was ridiculous for him to be pining so much over Lana, considering she already had a boyfriend. But Clark had had a crush on Lana ever since he was little, and his feelings weren't just going to disappear. **(But maybe they will for the sake of this fanfic).**

He walked home slowly after school that day, taking the time to think. He thought about his life and about all of the things that had happened in the day. Clark found he a lot on his mind; every once and a while he needed a quiet day for some introspection.

He stopped on a bridge on the way home and stared morosely down at the stream below. He just wished he was normal. Life would be easier if he was normal. He hated having to keep secrets from everyone.

He heard a smooth sound from a car – probably expensive – on one side of the bridge and the rumble of a truck on the other. He didn't pay attention to the passing vehicles; he was too preoccupied with his thoughts.

Suddenly, though, the sounds changed from a smooth purr and a clumsy rumble to something else. Clark heard screeching noises and turned around, alarmed. A silver sports car was careening towards him. There was no escape from its path. For a split second, Clark met the panicked eyes of the driver, and then…

The car hit him, pushing him right through the side of the bridge. He fell helplessly into the water, the car following him.

But… something was wrong. Shouldn't this hurt? Shouldn't he be dead? But as Clark fell into the water, he felt very much alive, and unharmed. He saw the sports car sinking into the water below him, almost in slow motion it seemed, and one thought filled his head at that moment: 'Save the driver'.

He dove down into the water and swam at superspeed towards the car. He effortlessly ripped off the roof of the car and pulled out the driver. He hauled the man to shore and managed to resuscitate him. The man spluttered and coughed as he came to and Clark leaned back in relief.

It was when the driver was finally safe that Clark realized what had just happened. How had he lived through that? That crash should have killed him. And yet it didn't. He glanced at the water, where ripples were beginning to fade.

What was happening?

* * *

**Now back to my story… well, there's a little bit of a recap at the beginning here from the show… but then my story.**

As Clark arrived home from school a few days later he found a brand new pickup truck with a bow on it waiting for him. Turns out it was a present from Lex Luthor, the man he had saved from the car that day.

But Clark's father, unfortunately, wasn't too keen on accepting the gift. He had dealt with Lionel Luthor before and discovered him to be rather… manipulative. He was always suspicious of the motives behind a Luthor's word.

So he told Clark to give the shiny new truck back.

And Clark argued back with every bit of stubbornness he had learned from his father. But he still couldn't win the argument and stormed upstairs. But then, just one extra sentence from his father set him off. It made him realize all of the things that had been plaguing him in one, horrible moment.

"I know you're upset, son. But it's normal."

Clark dropped his knapsack. "Normal?" he exclaimed, turning around. He walked towards the wood chipper and turned it on. "Is _this_ normal?" He stuck his hand in.

His father, horrified, ran towards him and pulled his arm out, only to find that there was not a scratch on it.

"I didn't dive in after Lex's car! It hit me at sixty miles an hour! Does that sound normal to you? I'd give anything to be normal."

He stormed away.

Later, when Clark sat up in the loft in the barn, his father came up to him. "Son, I need to tell you something… important."

Clark looked up at his father. His expression was curious, like he was doing something that was against his will.

"Ok, what?" Clark asked, still slightly irritated from their conversation before.

His father looked down at the floor and took a deep breath. "Well, there's something I have to show you. And you might not like it. But it's time you knew the truth."

He led Clark out of the barn down to the storm cellar. Clark grew increasingly curious. He'd never been allowed to go in the storm cellar before. Of course, when he was little, he snuck in once, but then he grew so paranoid that his parents would catch him that he left mere seconds later. But now his father was leading him right into the place that had been off-limits for so long. What lay in the storm cellar that was so bad?

Clark found out soon enough.

His father took a sheet off a large, oddly shaped object at the back of the storm cellar.

For a second, Clark forgot to breathe. It was undoubtedly a tiny spaceship. "What the…" His mind flickered to the Kryptonians. Oh no, were they coming back? What was this? Why did his father have a spaceship?

"Dad, what's going on? Why do you have a spaceship?" Clark's voice was afraid.

His father hesitated. He opened his mouth several times before actually speaking. "Son… this… I think that I should tell you about your origins."

Clark didn't put the pieces together immediately. He was too shocked with the sight of a spaceship in his parents' storm cellar.

"The day of the meteor shower, your mother and I… well, we _found _you…"

_Found me?_ Clark repeated the words in his head.

"We found you with this… ship." There was a pregnant pause. "Clark… your real parents… they weren't from around here…"

Clark was slowly, fearfully, beginning to put together the puzzle.

"Your abilities… you don't have them because of some sort of… mutation, or anything like that. They're how… they're normal for… you." His father looked at the floor almost ashamedly, for some reason.

A sick feeling was starting to enter Clark's stomach. "Dad, you're not saying… you don't mean I'm a…" They both knew what word remained unspoken. Then Clark asked, quietly, tentatively, "Am I?"

It only took one slow, sombre nod from his father to confirm his worst fears. But… no. It wasn't true. It was impossible. It just couldn't be the truth. He was… _nice_ to people! He wasn't violent; he wasn't _evil._ But… he was powerful. Not as much as the Kryptonians that he had heard so much about, but much more than any of the people he had ever met. He began to think it over. He could lift up a tractor with one hand. He could disappear in the blink of an eye. But he didn't have any of the other abilities that the Kryptonians had. He couldn't shoot fire out of his eyes. He couldn't _fly_.

His father was mistaken. He had to be.

"Son…?" his father asked tentatively.

Clark turned to his father and glared. "You're wrong." He supersped away.

He didn't really know where he was going. He ended up at the edge of a field somewhere. But he didn't care where he was, really. He was completely distressed.

Clark's whole world had just been turned upside down. Could he be a Kryptonian? Was it the truth? What was happening?

He shook his head. This was some horrible, horrible dream. This wasn't right.

But Clark thought back to his past. He never got sick. He never got hurt. He was strong and fast.

His parents had always sheltered him away from the world. _Why?_ He had wondered. His parents had told him to never use his abilities in front of others, because they would get upset. It was another unanswered question. Why should people get so upset? Couldn't they just accept him as who he was?

As Clark grew older, he realized that many people had trouble accepting things that were too different from them, so he assumed that was the reason he had to hide his powers. People wouldn't accept someone so different. It was a logical explanation, really. But how would they react if they found out that they were in the same room as a Kryptonian? 'Upset' would be an understatement. Clark realized, and his stomach dropped with the thought, that their reaction would probably be to get the hell out of that room and run as fast as their legs could carry them.

That was the last thing Clark wanted. The Kryptonians had become the thing of nightmares; those scary creatures you never wanted to meet. Clark had always shared in this view. He'd literally had nightmares for a few weeks when he had first found out about the Kryptonians.

He never, ever imagined he would be in this situation. He was a Kryptonian. A _Kryptonian_. He said it out loud. "Kryptonian…"

Somehow, said aloud, the word tended to have more of an impact on him. Things always seemed to have more of an impact when they were said out loud. The transformation of thoughts to speech almost seemed to solidify his fears. He said it again. "Kryptonian."

He voice took a sudden fierce turn, accenting the word. It was how he thought of Kryptonians, harsh and cruel. He could hear his own disgust in his voice. How could this be true?

In that moment, he couldn't help but visualize himself as one of the Kryptonians, hovering in the sky, smiling smugly while looking over the world. A city lay in ruins at his feet, and he laughed at it. He shuddered at the thought.

Clark hadn't been alive when the Kryptonians had come, but he had always imagined what they acted like and what they did.

But he was Kryptonian, and he didn't act arrogant and try to destroy people's lives. A horrible thought struck him. What if when he grew up he became just like them? What if being Kryptonian meant being cold and cruel? What if he slowly lost his humanity?

He felt like he had lost half of his humanity right now, by founding out that he wasn't human. He desperately wished he could go back to ignorance, it would be so much better than this…

Would he develop the other Kryptonian powers, eventually? Would he, one day, be able to shoot fire out of his eyes? One day, would he be able to _fly?_ Clark didn't want to gain any of these powers. Strength and speed were enough. He felt that by becoming increasingly powerful he would just become less and less human. But of course, now he knew he was never human to begin with.

He paced back and forth on the spot so vigorously that the grass beneath his feet gave way to dirt. What was he going to do? What was he going to say when he went back to school? How could he look into the faces of his friends and his classmates? The Kryptonians had affected everyone, in one way or another, and Clark was one of them – just as bad.

He couldn't face them again. They were such nice, good people, and _he_ was one of a race that struck terror into every human being's heart. How could he look into their eyes? If they knew what he was, they wouldn't hesitate. They would run.

And so Clark ran. He didn't really know why. Maybe he felt like if he pushed his legs to run fast enough, he'd forget his problems. Not like that would happen. But he needed to do something now to release all of his panic and fear.

So for now, he ran.

**And now… the secret is out! Well, to Clark at least. For the next chapter, I'm thinking on elaborating on the time when the Kryptonians came to Earth, and there will probably be much more dialogue than there was in this chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I know... haven't updated in 2+ weeks. It's despicable. But I've been extremely busy so at least I have an excuse. Anyway, chapter three:**

Clark missed only one day of school.

After pacing in the field for what seemed like hours, he ran home, his mind made up on what to do. He would run away.

He ran upstairs as swiftly and quietly as he could (which he could do quite well) so that neither of his parents noticed his presence. He dumped his books out of his knapsack onto his bed and filled it with clothes and toiletries. All of this was done in less than a minute. He had to get out of there. He didn't know why he wanted to run away so bad, it just seemed… easiest.

He paused. His clock, which had just seemed to be moving in super-slow motion, now resumed its regular tick-tock. Things had slowed down. Clark took the time to think. What was he doing? He shouldn't run away. He was just avoiding his problems. Besides, wherever he went he would meet people whose lives had been affected by the Kryptonians. It's not like he could avoid that. He would always face people that would hate him if they knew what he was.

But somehow, it just seemed so much easier to run away. It was much better for strangers to hate him than people he loved, Clark reasoned. He didn't have any attachments to strangers. If they didn't like him, he could just run away… But if people he loved hated him… if his friends knew… How could he lose Pete and Chloe, and _Lana?_ What if they found out? They would hate him forever. They could never accept him.

Clark unintentionally began to pace once again, but soon he stopped as he caught sight of something.

It was a mirror. He stared, in panic, at his own reflection. This was the first time he'd seen his reflection since finding out he was a Kryptonian. He didn't look different at all, of course, but he _felt_ different. Just how different was he?

He examined his reflection, apprehensively, afraid of what he might find. Clark had never found anything about his physical appearance that looked inhuman, but he supposed that might have been because he thought that he was human.

Now that he knew he wasn't, he felt like a whole new person was staring back at him from the mirror. A Kryptonian was staring back at him.

He frowned at his reflection. He didn't think that he looked very Kryptonian. He looked just… human. The eyes looking back at him weren't cold and emotionless, they were afraid. _That_ definitely wasn't Kryptonian.

But he was. He shifted closer to the mirror, nervously. From what he had heard, Kryptonians didn't look any different than humans. So he shouldn't either, right? But he was gripped with an irrational fear that would sprout antennae or some sort of weird alien thing. He told himself to calm down. Kryptonians looked just like humans, and he was proof of that, considering that for most of his life he thought he had been human. Something weird wasn't going to happen just because he had found out the truth.

But who was it, exactly, that was gaping back at him from the mirror? For so long he thought he'd been a normal person, but now he realized he was looking into the eyes of a Kryptonian. It was the stuff of his nightmares. He just never thought it would be his own reflection he was facing.

The Kryptonians were so frightening to so many people, including Clark. He suddenly became very afraid of his power. Just what could he will himself to do, if he wanted to? He always knew he'd been quite powerful but had never really understood the extent of it until now. The knapsack in his hand felt like a feather. When he lifted up a car it was like picking up a hollow concrete brick. He could feel the weight, but it was easy for him to lift it. There were a lot of things he could do.

His eyes flitted back and forth in panic. He had to… he had to get _away_ from this! He had to get away from the people he loved. He didn't want to hurt them. It was only too easy. One wrong move and, bam, his secret was out. People would probably form a lynch mob and go after him. Actually, maybe that would be stupid. Maybe they'd just run away. Either way, they wouldn't take the time to listen to Clark's side of the story. They wouldn't give him the chance to tell them that he was actually good. That he was here to help. Nope. The word 'Kryptonian' seemed to have a strong effect on people.

But should he really run away? Was that really the wisest decision? Suddenly, he heard his mother's voice from downstairs.

"Clark? Are you there?"

He made his decision in a split second. As fast as he could, he grabbed everything that he thought he would need and jumped out the window.

The moment his feet touched the ground he began to run. He was out of sight of the Kent farm in seconds.

Even as he was running, he wasn't sure he'd made the right decision. He was running away from his problems. But he was on his way, and he might as well keep going.

But what was he going to do? Where was he going to go? He hadn't really thought this all the way through. He flipped through his wallet. It had one hundred and twenty dollars; half of the money stash he'd been saving up for a few years. He'd never had a real part-time job before but he did odd jobs for neighbours every once and a while, which was where the money came from. He used to get an allowance when he was younger, but he never got very much money because his parents weren't incredibly wealthy. Clark had never minded, but suddenly, in his current predicament, he wished he was a little richer. One hundred and twenty dollars could only get you so far.

Clark pushed the thought out of his mind and sped on. He had decided that he should at least go to Metropolis; no one would recognize him there. He could see the city skyline hovering up ahead. A bright cloud hung over the city, reflecting the lights from the scene below.

Metropolis was everything that Smallville was not. It was bright, loud and busy. Clark wasn't sure if he really liked it that much. He was used to quieter, rural areas. This was a little overwhelming. Who would ever want to live in a big city?

He walked down the streets, now moving at a human pace. At 10:00 on a Wednesday night, the sidewalks weren't too busy, but they were still about ten times as occupied as the streets would be in Smallville right now. He nervously continued to walk forward. He realized how out of place he looked in the city. First of all, he was dressed like someone who lived on a farm, in jeans, a plaid shirt, blue jacket and boots. Second, he was only fourteen years old. He was big, but you could see his naivety in his face. He wasn't a city person. He meandered cautiously down a street. The population on the sidewalks was starting to thin. Maybe he was going the wrong direction.

He was about to turn around and head back when he heard a voice from behind him. "Don't move."

He froze in place, feeling a slight spasm of fear. Wait, why should he be afraid? Whoever it was couldn't hurt him. He was a… _Kryptonian_… and this person was only human. But he was still nervous. He racked his brain… how could he get out of this situation without revealing his powers? Was there a way? Maybe he could just pretend to be a really strong human.

He felt what was unmistakeably a gun on his back. That brought out some more fear. No one had ever pointed a gun at him before. Was he bulletproof? The other Kryptonians certainly had been, but he wasn't as old as them.

"Walk forward," a gruff voice commanded.

Clark did as he was told, starting to panic now. He was being led into a dark alleyway. He heard some muted muttering in the darkness. There were other men not too far away.

Suddenly, Clark felt the gun leave his back and make contact with his head. It was a good hit and Clark swayed sideways slightly, but he didn't lose his balance. The man behind him seemed confused.

Then, Clark wheeled around and ran. He kept at a human pace, but only just. He wasn't going fast enough, though, to outrun the bullet that was coming up from behind him. He felt a small sting at his back but he kept running until he was back into the busier part of Metropolis.

He felt shaky now. He knew those men couldn't hurt him, but it seemed scary nonetheless. He had been so sheltered growing up… he had never imagined he would be in such a situation.

He pulled off his jacket. There was small hole in the back. He gaped at it. Had that bullet actually hit him? He wasn't really paying attention to it; he was too focused on running at a human speed. But he had definitely felt something hit his back. Something that was strong enough to sting. And he heard the gunshot, too. There was only one possible explanation: he was bulletproof.

This fact made Clark feel both relieved and frightened at the same time. Relieved, because he knew he couldn't get hurt. Frightened, because he knew he couldn't be stopped. Guns were a formidable weapon, but apparently they were useless against him. He was just getting more and more powerful.

He was getting more and Kryptonian.

He kept running until bright lights appeared again. Before, they had seemed too harsh. Now, they were welcoming. The bright lights meant a safe area.

Clark just wanted the day to end. He frantically sought out a hotel… or _somewhere…_ he could stay the night. Everything seemed so high-profile and expensive around this part of the city. He figured that to find somewhere cheaper to stay, he'd have to stray back into the darker areas of Metropolis. He didn't want to do that. He was still a little shaken.

So he looked through the least-fancy hotels he could find. It was awkward asking how much the cheapest room cost. The lowest price he seemed to be able to find was fifty dollars for one night. By that point, it had been a very long day and Clark was tired, so he took it, though he knew he'd have to vacate after the night.

His room was tiny, but it was cozy, and it was indoors. Clark barely spent any time settling into the room; he immediately fell onto his bed. However, as tired as he was, it took a long time for him to get to sleep, and he felt restless throughout the night.

* * *

"Clark? Are you there?" Martha called. She'd heard footsteps upstairs and assumed her son was home. She headed up to his bedroom.

In all honesty, she didn't really want to go upstairs that much. Clark had just found out about his ancestry… she predicted a long and difficult talk. What would she say? Oh, so you just found out that your ancestors are evil aliens… but you're ok! No, that would definitely not be the right thing to say. But either way, she carried herself up the stairs, each step seeming steeper than the next.

She knocked on Clark's door tentatively. "Clark…?"

There was no answer. Maybe he was giving her the silent treatment. She opened the door.

"Clark?" The room was empty. Maybe he wasn't here. But then she looked over to the opposite side of the room and saw his bedroom window, wide open. It was just enough space for him to slip out. She felt as though her heart had skipped a beat.

She ran to window as fast as she could. "Clark!" she called out desperately. Would he hear her? Probably not. He was probably long gone. But _where was he_? He was somewhere out there, all alone, all by himself! Of course, he was more than capable of taking care of himself, with all his abilities, but…

The flood of thoughts rushing through her mind made her unable to think clearly. She rushed out of the room and down the stairs, her eyes wide. "Jonathan! Jonathan!"

Her husband rushed out of the living room, looking confused, and a little shocked. "What?" he asked in an urgent voice. "What is it?"

"Clark," Martha gasped. "I… I don't…" She felt breathless; she could barely speak.

Her husband, appearing to sense the words that were meant to come, rushed up to Clark's bedroom without hesitating.

Martha heard his intake of breath from downstairs.

Jonathan appeared at the top of the stairs. He shook his head, and spoke slowly. "Please don't tell me that he decided to run away."

Martha just gave a small shrug. Her throat was constricted. She felt so helpless.

Jonathan took her shrug as a yes. "Damn! It's because he found out, isn't it? We should _never_ have told him!"

"Well we _had _to tell him sometime!" Martha argued. "You expected he'd never put the pieces together? I mean, say in the future he can shoot fire out of his eyes like the others… I think that would be enough for him to figure out he's not actually human. And if he figured it out then, things could be even worse! At least _we_ told him, rather than him finding out by himself!"

That made Jonathan hesitate a bit. "Well… what are we going to _do_, though? We've got to do _something_! We can't just stand around here and argue! I'm going to get him." He made a move to grab his jacket from a stand by the front door.

"Ok, where are you going to look?"

He paused. His hand fell to his side, away from his jacket. "I don't know… I've just… I have to _do_ something, Martha!"

"Jonathan, we're Clark's parents and he loves us, just as much as we love him. Chances are, he's not gone forever," Martha reasoned. She was starting to feel a bit more composed. "Let's just give him a little time… he'll come home once he's cooled off a bit."

Jonathan hesitated. He looked towards his jacket. Martha could tell that he really wanted to get in his truck and race off after Clark in the night. But they both knew it would be to no avail.

Jonathan, wearing an expression of defeat on his face, walked back towards the kitchen table with heavy steps. He pulled out a chair and fell into it. Martha followed him. They both felt weary.

There was what seemed like a very long pause. Then Jonathan spoke. "I still feel like I shouldn't have told him. He clearly wasn't ready for something as big as that."

"Do you think he would _ever_ be ready for something like that? I mean, imagine it was you in his place. How would you react? You know Clark… he probably feels so… _guilty_. Like everything the Kryptonians did was his fault..." She frowned. Her voice was passionate. "But I wish… I wish he didn't have to run away! Now, more than ever, he needs us. He needs us to tell him that even though he's Kryptonian, he's good. Not bad."

Jonathan gave a short, bitter laugh. "It's amazing the situations that can sneak up on you, isn't it? Can you imagine us talking about this twenty-five years ago?"

Martha frowned. "No, I can't. But things can change a lot in a matter of years, can't they? The Kryptonians were here for less than year, and in that short period time, look at what they did. And now we've got our own Kryptonian on our hands… but this time to protect and to love, not to hate or fear. We just… we've got to support him in any way possible… I just want him back…"

"So do I," Jonathan spoke back, a sudden fierce tone taking over his voice. "And I'll be damned if he's gone from our lives. As soon as he decides to come back, we're going to have a good, long father-son chat. He can't just up and run away. I don't care if he's Kryptonian; he's still my son."

* * *

Part of the reason why Clark slept so badly that night was because he had a particularly vivid nightmare.

His dream started with a normal school day. He walked into the school and met up with Pete and Chloe.

But in first period everything fell apart. He was doing… math, was it? Or English? The subjects seemed to switch back and forth, but of course, even the most random things somehow seem to make sense in dreams. So it made perfect sense that he was somehow working on an essay that explained the effects of algebra on classical literature. He sat near Pete, Chloe and Lana, all of whom managed to have the exact same class as him. Things started out relatively calm and relaxed, if a bit strange.

And then a man walked into the classroom. Clark, along with the rest of the students in the classroom, paled. The man was a Kryptonian. He wasn't actually one of the real Kryptonians that came to Earth, but a version made up in Clark's subconscious. But Clark recognized the man, for he had haunted his dreams for several years. Ever since he had first found out about the Kryptonians he had feared them, but his hateful feelings towards them weren't immediate. Over time, he'd heard more and more horror stories about people whose lives had been torn apart, and one day, realization sunk in.

Not much later, this Kryptonian, the one in his dreams, had made his appearance. He had no definitive image; his face and body weren't fully formed, they were just an idea. But some things about him were always the same… like the way he walked, smooth and quiet, and the general impression he had on those around him. He radiated power and fed on fear. He hovered in Clark's nightmares, not really doing anything, but standing in the background, emanating menace. When Clark saw him, he would run, but wherever he ran the Kryptonian always seemed to pop up, sneering with cruel amusement. He felt a chill whenever he thought about those nightmares.

And now he was back, standing in front of him in the classroom. Clark's classmates, being part of Clark's subconscious, also knew exactly who this was. The Kryptonian. The class, which had been previously buzzing with chatter, grew deadly silent. Everyone was afraid. Clark considered making a run for it, but he knew he could never make it to the door.

The Kryptonian walked slowly and quietly until he stood right near Clark's desk, looking down at him. Clark was afraid for his life. His heart raced, but he sat stalk still.

Suddenly the Kryptonian's face burst into a smile. It wasn't exactly a human smile. There was something… lacking. But it apparently represented friendliness, and Clark was shocked.

"Son!" The Kryptonian threw his arms open. "It's been so long!" Somehow, Clark found himself standing and embraced in a hug.

"I'm so glad I have finally found you… we can conquer the world together, father and son!" His cold eyes seemed to pierce his own. "We'll rule like gods among these inferior humans!"

Clark found himself swept away by his 'father'. He was moving at a brisk pace out of the classroom. He felt almost as if he was gliding. The last thing he saw as he looked back at the classroom was an expression of terror lining the face of every student.

Suddenly, though, as Clark entered the hallway, the scene somehow seemed to change. The Kryptonian was gone, and the classroom behind him was empty. He saw Chloe in the distance, stuffing books into her locker.

"Hey, Chloe!" he called to her.

She gave him one brief look but didn't respond. Instead, looking harried, she threw the rest of her books into her locker, slammed it shut then sped away as quickly as she could.

Clark was confused. "Hey, wait!" Clark ran after her. Somehow, he slipped into super speed, and seconds later stood in front of her. He frowned. Why had that happened? It was like he couldn't control it.

Chloe stopped and looked up at him, shocked. She seemed afraid.

Fear, Clark thought. He knew who caused fear. That alien was around somewhere. He looked into Chloe's eyes and gently grabbed her shoulders. She let out a barely audible squeak. "Chloe, is the Kryptonian here?" Clark asked. "Did you see him?"

Of course he had to be here. What else could make her so afraid?

He let go of her and wheeled around, searching for the source of her fear. He heard her turn and run. Why? He couldn't see the Kryptonian anywhere.

This time he didn't run after her. He continued to search for the elusive alien.

Then, the bell rang. Students flooded the hallways. Clark inwardly groaned. How would he ever find that Kryptonian now? But then he noticed something strange seemed to be happening. Although there were many students in the hallway, there seemed to be a wide area of empty space around him. People were quietly slipping by, one by one, on the sides of the hallway. It seemed like they were trying to pass by him unnoticed.

Then Clark recalled the words of the Kryptonian. _Son! It's been so long!_

Wait.

Was it _him_ Chloe was afraid of? These people in the hallways were giving him so much space… were they afraid of what he would do?

He turned and caught a glimpse of his reflection off the plastic casing on the school trophy display. His face looked severe and his eyes cold and hard… he recognized that face…

Oh God.

_He_ was the Kryptonian.

And upon that startling realization, Clark woke up with a start. He felt shaky. He got up and ran over to the mirror in the bathroom.

Staring back at him was a scared teenage boy, nothing frightening, nothing scary. He breathed a sigh of relief. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't just a scared teenage boy… under that guise, was he just another Kryptonian?

Well, maybe… but, he just didn't _feel_ like it. He felt every bit like the scared teenage boy that appeared to be staring back at him.

He went back to his bed and tried to sleep, but he couldn't close his eyes for the rest of the night.

At six o'clock in the morning he decided to get up. He didn't really have anything to pack. He just threw on a pair of jeans and a shirt and brushed his teeth.

He looked in his wallet. There were barely fifty dollars left. This wouldn't get him very far. It was inevitable; sometime he would have to go back home, whether he wanted to or not.

What could he do? How could he get more money? As a fourteen year old from Smallville without a place to live, he knew he couldn't get a legitimate job in Metropolis. He didn't have enough money left to stay anywhere but on the streets, and he really didn't want to do that.

The only option left would be to resort to thievery, but Clark's morals were too strong for that.

He was only creating problems for himself by staying here. The truth was, he just didn't have enough money to stay in Metropolis. He could close his eyes and pretend it wasn't so, but then he'd open his eyes again and reality would greet him.

He eventually left the hotel to address the rumbling of his stomach. He bought a bagel and orange juice for breakfast. A little less than he was used to, but it was still another ten dollars gone.

As he sat and ate, he wondered: just how long could he stall? He had to go home, but he didn't want to face his problems. Maybe he could just walk through Metropolis a bit… but then he thought: what would that achieve? Should he just go home?

He managed to procrastinate for maybe half an hour. He walked around Metropolis trying to push all of his worries out of his mind. But something inside him continued to feel more and more guilty, like he was ignoring things that he should address. His stomach began to churn in guilt and he realized: _I have to go home._

He ducked into an alley, making sure there was no one there. He'd gotten a little nervous about that. Then, making sure that no one saw him, he sped away as quickly as he could.

Metropolis was not an extreme distance from Smallville and Clark made it home in a matter of seconds. However, despite his short trip, it took a good fifteen minutes for him to will himself through his front door.

It was only eight o'clock in the morning. His parents were both dressed and eating breakfast at the kitchen table.

As Clark walked in, his parents both looked up. There was a long pause.

Then his mother rushed over to him and gave him a hug. "Clark Kent!" she scolded. "Don't _ever_ do anything like that again!"

Clark looked up at his father and saw a brief look of happiness and relief cross his face. But it was gone in a second and replaced with a frown. "Son, do you realize just how worried we were about you?"

Clark looked at the floor and mumbled, "I know."

His father continued: "You can't just run away from your problems. I thought your mother and I taught you better than that."

Clark felt a twinge of annoyance. "Well I'm pretty sure _most_ people don't have to deal with problems as big as mine!"

Clark's father paused. Then a gentler expression crossed his face. "I know," he agreed. "It's true. I dropped a bomb on you yesterday, and it was a lot to process. But… son… your mother and I are here for you. You didn't have to run away. We are the only people that will love you unconditionally no matter what… your ancestry is. And we can help you get through it."

"Help me get through it?" Clark exclaimed. "You make it sound like a relative died or something. This is so much bigger than that! How… how is this _possible?_" He choked out the last word. How _was_ this possible? How could his whole world turn around in less than twenty-four hours? _How_ could he be a _Kryptonian?_

Clark's mother walked back up towards him. "Clark, we know it's a big deal," she said gently. "Your father just meant to say that we're here for you."

Clark sunk into a chair beside the kitchen table. He could hardly speak, his throat felt so constricted. He was on the verge of tears. Now, it had finally begun to sink in. It wasn't so crazy or strange anymore. It was a fact: he wasn't a human, he was a Kryptonian.

He wanted to speak; he wanted to say words, but they just didn't seem to be coming to his mouth.

He blinked several times and took a few deep breaths before he was ready to speak again.

"But… I'm a _good person_. I wouldn't hurt anybody… or kill anybody like _they _did."

"We know that, Clark," his mother told him. "You _are_ a good person. Just because you're Kryptonian doesn't change that."

"But how do you _know_?" Clark asked in a pained voice. "How do you that know that one day I won't just decide to go and start killing people and then go conquer the world just for kicks?"

"Clark," his mother gave him a reproving look. "I think you have the ability to make your own decisions. You're not going to start conquering the world just because you're Kryptonian."

"Mom, I don't know… I feel like an entirely new person –"

"But you aren't," his mother cut across him. "You're still the same old Clark, and you'll make the same good decisions as you always have. Just trust yourself."

Clark closed his mouth and agreed, though he still felt worried.

"Even if that's true, there's still one other thing…"

He looked quickly up, from his mother to his father then back to the floor again. "People hate Kryptonians. People are afraid of them. _I'm _afraid of them. How can you be afraid of yourself?"

Neither of his parents really knew how to respond to that one. There was a pause.

"And if anyone found out," Clark continued. "Who would ever like me? Who could ever see me as I truly am? They'd see the Kryptonian first, then Clark second. Or they'd just run away so they wouldn't see the Clark part at all."

"You know that we'll always love you, son," his father assured him, "no matter what."

Clark gritted his teeth. "But that's not enough! I'm sorry… I wish it was… I just wish I was _normal_! I wish I didn't have to worry about these things! Why can't I just be a stupid _human_?"

His father shook his head. "I don't know. I wish that, for your sake, you could be. But life doesn't give you anything more than you can handle, son. I know this seems tough," he grabbed Clark's shoulders, "but I promise you that _we will get through this_. Everything is going to be ok."

He backed up. "Now, I think that you more than deserve a day off school for all of this, and who can blame you. Take the day to run things through your head; things aren't as bad as you think they are, you'll see."

Clark nodded, somewhat morosely, and stood up.

"And Clark," his father continued. "I don't care if you're Kryptonian… you're still my son, still a Kent, and you're going to make me proud."

**I know that I said I was going to elaborate more on when the Kryptonians came in this chapter, but that didn't really end up happening. The chapter kind of evolved on me (don't you hate it when that happens?) and I thought that it needed to head in a slightly different direction. But I think that I need to put a bit more detail into the time when the Kryptonians came, so I'll do that... maybe next chapter... but I've learned that I can't make any promises.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sooooo... first update in over 5 months... I know, I suck. But I will be able to update much more frequently now.**

For much of the day, Clark sat and thought. He thought he'd never done this much thinking in his entire life. But now it seemed he had to contemplate what was going on. Everything that had been going on seemed so obscure and strange – unrealistic even. Even after the past nights events, it would take him a fair amount of time to digest the happenings that had clumsily stumbled upon him.

It was nearing five o'clock in the afternoon and Clark was at the kitchen table doing some homework. His father was out doing chores and his mother was grocery shopping, so for the while, he was home alone.

Then, he distantly heard the sound of a car in front of his house. He stepped out of the kitchen onto the front porch and laid eyes onto a very ostentatious automobile. The door to the driver seat opened and out stepped a well-dressed man who looked to be around his early twenties. He was a little shorter than Clark and completely bald.

Clark looked at him curiously. He recognized this man. This was the man who had run him off the bridge and whose life he had saved. Clark was surprised to see him look so upright. He didn't look like he'd had a recent near-death experience at all.

The man took in his surroundings, and then looked up at Clark. Once he saw that Clark was looking back, he gave a friendly nod and started towards him.

"Hi," the man gave a slightly awkward grin. "I suppose we've already met, but not officially. I'm Lex Luthor." He extended his hand.

Clark shook his hand. "Clark Kent," he returned shortly, unsure of what to say next.

Lex got right down to business. "So, I noticed that the truck I gave you was returned to me. I came to make sure that there wasn't any bad blood between us." He looked up at Clark seriously.

"Well… no… of course not… my dad just doesn't really like gifts, that's all."

"Your father 'doesn't really like gifts'," Lex repeated slowly. "Clark, I don't know many people who would willingly return a brand new car that was gifted to them. Are you sure there isn't more to this?"

"Well…" Clark hesitated. He knew that part of the reason why his father had returned the truck was because it had been bought using Luthor money. He didn't know much about Lionel Luthor, but for whatever reason his father seemed to have a big grudge against him. Clark phrased his words as carefully as he could, he didn't want to insult Lex. "I think my dad has some issues with… your father."

Lex's mouth tightened fractionally. "I'm not my father, Clark. I haven't made the same decisions as he has and I don't ever intend to. I'm not trying to win you over by buying you a fancy new car, as your father may have thought. In fact, since you saved my life, I am indebted to you for that. And I don't like to be in debt. I was just trying to do whatever I could to repay you, that's _all._"

"Lex, trust me, I _really_ appreciated it." Clark's tone let Lex know that his words were genuine. "It wasn't my idea to give it back. But I can't just change my father's opinions."

"Well there has to be _something_ I can do to repay you, Clark. After all, you saved my life. It's not like I can just say thanks and move on. I owe you my life."

Clark felt a little uncomfortable with the serious look in Lex's eyes. "Seriously," he said, "I'm ok with you just saying thanks. I'm not going to hold anything against you. I'm sure you would have saved my life as well, if you'd been given the chance."

Lex didn't quit. "Nah, there's got to be something. Do you like any girls? I can put together a dream date that'll make her fall into your arms."

Clark blushed slightly as his mind flickered to Lana. "I promise you, Lex, I don't really know what I can tell you. I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I promise I don't need anything."

Lex seemed to finally give in. "Ok, ok. If you insist. But seriously, Clark, I can't even thank you enough. This is a huge deal to me. Without you I would be dead, so thank you."

Clark thought Lex was done with him, but then he continued, "I'm staying at the Luthor mansion, that old Scottish castle. You can come by any time if you need anything from me. Trust me, Clark. From now on, I'm going to make sure that your life takes a turn… for the better."

And then he turned on his heel and headed back to his car.

Clark just watched him walk away. Looks like he was going to have a new friend, whether he liked it or not. Clark had to admit he was intrigued by the prospect of going inside that big Scottish castle. He'd seen it being put in and always had a desire to go in and explore, but of course he couldn't… until now.

He watched Lex's car shrink into the distance, and then turned and headed back into the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Lex was driving down the road towards his mansion. So _that_ was the person who had saved him. He seemed very modest. Lex liked modesty. Growing up in a world of wealth he felt like he saw too little of it.

At first, Lex had been really worried about Clark rejecting the car. He feared he would have another lawsuit filed against him… he really couldn't blame the Kents, though. But it turned out that Clark wasn't the type to want to file a lawsuit. He seemed like just a mild-mannered guy stumbling through the latest mundane events of his life.

And although Lex had only really just met Clark today, he already liked him. He seemed so well-intentioned. Hey, maybe Lex could make a genuine friend for once. He didn't know exactly why, but for him friends seemed hard to come by. Maybe it was the baldness, or maybe the wealth. He'd only really been made fun of and used; most of his friends had been fake. But Clark didn't seem that way at all.

Lex pulled into the front of his mansion and stopped his car. Of course, Lex had never really cared about friendship before now… that hadn't been his motive for going and visiting Clark today.

He picked up an unsealed envelope lying on the passenger seat and took out the pictures from within. There was a photograph of the railing his car had careened through. There was nothing in this photo that he didn't expect.

It was the next few photos that really interested him. There were pictures taken of his wrecked car, which had been pulled out of the river with much difficulty. It was barely recognizable from the flashy sports car it had been before; all of the glass was shattered and there were huge, ugly gashes throughout. But what was most intriguing about the car was the roof.

The roof of the car looked like it had been peeled off, almost cleanly, like a metal lid is peeled off a can. It was inexplicable; nothing in the water could have caused the roof to come unhinged that way. It was almost as if something – or someone – had ripped it off. It seemed impossible, but Lex had seen strength like that before.

There was definitely something… strange about Clark Kent and Lex was going to figure out what it was.

* * *

Clark returned to school the next day. He was still very unsure of himself; he wasn't sure he even wanted to go to school, but he decided to suck it up and go anyway. After all, he couldn't sulk forever.

Once again, he ran to school, but this time he missed the bus on purpose. After his discovery of late, he simply felt he would be uncomfortable travelling in a bus crowded with a bunch of loud teenagers. He had some sort of mundane fear that he couldn't trust himself anymore, particularly within large groups of people.

It was kind of ridiculous. What did he think, that if too many people got near him something in his head would snap and he would go on a homicidal rampage? Just because he found out his origins didn't suddenly make him any different. But he ran to school that day, just to be sure.

Of course, it wasn't like he could escape the masses of teenagers once he entered the school building. He'd just have to make sure that he had complete control over all of his abilities.

As Clark entered the school and made his way towards his locker, he glimpsed Pete and Chloe and made a beeline towards them.

"Hey."

They both turned.

"Hey!" Chloe looked up at him. "Where were you yesterday?"

"Oh… I wasn't feeling very well…" Clark lied.

"Did you hear about Jeremy Creek?" Chloe cut across him excitedly, her eyes sparkling.

"Who?"

"Jeremy Creek. Some total psycho who tried to electrocute people at the dance last night!"

Clark frowned. "Wait, _what_?"

"Yeah, he was going to set off the sprinklers, apparently, and then electrocute anyone inside. But the sprinklers were kind of messed up, and they didn't work, I guess... but then he just sort of burst onto the dance floor and he did this _crazy_ thing with his hands and electrocuted Mr. Burns!" Chloe seemed very excited about all of this.

"Is he ok?" Clark asked, concerned.

"I think so… he was knocked out, but apparently he woke up a little later. But Clark – he electrocuted someone _with his_ _hands_! It was so _creepy!_ You can't make that stuff up!"

Clark began to look around a little shiftily. "How can you know that for sure? And how do you know so much about this Jeremy Creek anyway?"

"Um, I _saw_ him, Clark. I was right there at the dance… And I did some eavesdropping when the police showed up to arrest him… that's why I know so much." Chloe looked very proud of herself.

Clark's mind was reeling. Was this another person with abilities like himself? Sure, he'd read plenty of crazy stories of people with special abilities… but here was someone who had actually been proven to have special abilities. Surely he wasn't Kryptonian… but then how did he have these abilities? Chloe would answer his question only too soon.

"I think he's a _meteor freak_," Chloe said with relish.

"A meteor freak?" Clark asked. "What's that?"

Pete and Chloe exchanged a brief look.

"Well…" Chloe began slowly, "I've been working on this theory for a while that certain people in Smallville have special abilities because of the meteor rocks."

"Meteor rocks?"

"Yeah –"

Just then, the bell rang.

"Damn." Chloe frowned. "Clark, I seriously have so much to tell you. Meet me at the Torch after school." Then she skipped away to her first period class.

Clark wheeled towards Pete, his eyes wide. "Are you guys ok? What happened?"

"Yeah, we're fine, everyone's fine. I mean, it was kind of scary when this random guy came in and electrocuted Mr. Burns, but no one got hurt so I guess it's ok." Then he gave a little grin. "And, of course, now Chloe just has a nice new story to write."

He paused, and then gave a small frown. "But Clark, man, we've got something else on our plate. Social studies. Mr Kane told us that we're going to be studying the effects of the Kryptonian invasion on human society this week. That's one unit that I don't think _anyone_ wants to study… but it's in the school curriculum."

Oh yeah, Clark suddenly recalled. Pete's family had been greatly affected by the Kryptonian invasion. Apparently, Pete's aunt had been horribly tortured and then killed by one of the Kryptonians' followers. Pete's mother had clearly been greatly affected by this… Clark could tell because once when he was over at Pete's house, he had briefly mentioned the Kryptonians, and Pete's mother had snapped quite harshly at him.

And then, Clark felt sick again. His stomach churned with guilt. _His_ race, _his_ people… maybe even _his_ relatives… had done this to Pete's family. _They_ had murdered Pete's aunt and traumatized his mother. And he was one of them; he was no better.

Pete's words shook him out of his thoughts. "C'mon, let's get to class. I don't want to be late."

Clark nodded, and they headed to his locker before going to first period. It was unusually silent between them as they walked down the hall. Clark figured that Pete was thinking about the Kryptonians just as much as he was. Of course, Pete was probably thinking about slightly different things than Clark was.

They entered the class just on time and promptly stood up for the anthem. Then it was time for morning announcements over the intercom. Finally, class started.

"Ok class, settle down, settle down!" Mr. Kane shouted over the buzz that was about fifteen conversations going on at once.

"Now, this week and next week, we are going to be discussing the Kryptonian invasion." At this, the class went deadly silent. "I know this can be a fairly touchy subject considering how many people were affected by it, but we've got to get through it. Now, let's get started.

"So, you probably all know about the basics of the Kryptonian invasion. Zor-El, an extraterrestrial being from the planet Krypton, arrived on Earth and began a painful rule of violence and intimidation. A month later, his brother Jor-El also appeared, seemingly to stop Zor-El, yet their battles only further ravaged the Earth, in fact to an extent that hadn't previously been seen in human history. Just to introduce the topic, I'm going to show you a short video that talks about the Kryptonian occupation. I'll warn you that some of the images are a little graphic."

Mr. Kane walked over to the old TV in the corner of the classroom and popped a VHS into the video player. No one talked; everyone in the class simply watched him.

Clark began to shift around in his seat. He couldn't handle this. Not right now. He'd just learned that he was a Kryptonian less than thirty-six hours ago. Now he would have to deal with a video that condemned the Kryptonian race. He would be faced with a class full of students that hated Kryptonians and wanted them dead. And most people certainly weren't shy about their opinions in this respect.

Mr. Kane turned the lights off and pressed play.

The video was narrated by a business-like male voice. It began with a slideshow of cities which had been destroyed. "Shanghai. Madrid. San Francisco." The voice began. "Only a few of the thriving cities that were brutally destroyed during the Kryptonian invasion. Every person, no matter what age or race, knows what happened in the fateful year of 1976. But only a few people know how it began, and the events that nearly led to the destruction of our planet Earth." Dramatic music played, and the video title showed up on the screen: 'Kryptonian Occupation'.

The voice, once again, began to speak. "Before the occupation, 'alien invasion' was a term reserved for fiction. It was preposterous – the idea that extraterrestrials would one day attempt to seize control of our world. So, understandably, no one could predict the events that would happen in the near future.

"On March 12th, 1976, fireman raced to put down a massive fire that had sprung up in downtown Vancouver, Canada. The fire spread over half a block and three buildings – a post office, a government building and a bookstore – were completely destroyed. Seven people were trapped in the flames and died.

"One hysterical survivor insisted that a man had entered the government building and set the building on fire with his eyes. Naturally, the police dismissed this claim as nonsense. Nevertheless, they had to admit the fire looked suspicious and ruled it as arson. For the time being, the case remained unsolved.

"Two days later, a similar fire occurred in Detroit. Again, some survivors claimed that a man had used his eyes to set the building on fire. And once again, their claims were ignored.

"But suddenly, these suspicious fires started popping up everywhere; in Cleveland then Toronto then Miami. Then the fires spread overseas, in Brighton, Madrid, Marseille… it was still late March when a horrendous fire wiped out large parts of Beijing.

"And the claims persisted. Wherever there was a fire, there also seemed to be at least one person who witnessed a tall, thin man with seemingly superhuman abilities.

"The police were baffled. By this point they knew that the fires had to be linked. But what was happening? Who was behind this? How was it possible that one day, a fire would spring up in a city and the next day, a new fire just like it would appear in another city thousands of miles away?

"It was assumed that whoever was responsible was at the head of a very powerful underground organization. But what the police couldn't explain was why these buildings were being burnt down. They seemed completely random. In one city, a bank would perish, and in another, a hardware store was destroyed. There was no relation. There were no threats, no ransom calls, no… nothing.

"Authorities came upon only two possible conclusions. One option was that there was an enormous underground band of anarchists. However, most people didn't really believe this was true. There had to be some sort of meaning behind the fires.

"The second, more likely option was that someone or some organization was starting the fires not to achieve any means, but simply to make people scared. Whoever was starting these fires wanted to world to know that they had power and weren't afraid to use it.

"Police began looking into the 'thin man' who had seemed to appear at all of the fires, but to little avail. No one could find out who this man was, what he did, where he worked… The search seemed hopeless.

"But not long after, the 'thin man' finally revealed himself. April 7th, 1976, was the day that the world changed forever."

The class was somehow even quieter than before. It was like everyone was holding their breath.

"On this day, a man caused quite a stir by hovering over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. No one knew how it was possible that a man was flying. When he had gathered enough of a crowd, he made an action that would not soon be forgotten. He swooped down from his position in the sky and felled the grand bridge, killing all of the people on it. He used his eyes to burn a symbol into the ground before the bridge."

The image of a black-and-white photograph appeared on the screen. Black burn marks stood out starkly against the concrete. It was an 'S' enclosed in irregularly-shaped pentagon.

"This would soon become the symbol that the world would fear. The 'man' introduced himself as Zor-El, an alien from the distant planet of Krypton with the full intention of conquering the planet Earth. And it was on this day that Zor-El's reign of terror began.

"Zor-El attacked prominent countries such as the United States and China. He secured control of their governments using fear and violence. He destroyed buildings at random, to let the humans know that he was in control. He slowly began to build a world-wide dictatorship.

"At this point, the world began to lose hope. How could humans fight against such a powerful force? There seemed to be nothing on Earth that could put an end to Zor-El's tyranny.

"But then, on April 18th later that year, another Kryptonian appeared and demanded that Zor-El stop his quest for world-domination. This Kryptonian called himself Jor-El, and claimed to be Zor-El's brother. Finally there was a glimmer of hope. Was this Kryptonian good? Could he save the world?"

Beside Clark, Pete snorted quietly. "A Kryptonian saving the world. Yeah right," he muttered under his breath.

"Unfortunately," the video continued, "this was not the case. Jor-El fought his brother, but he appeared to be just as ruthless and merciless to the humans who got in his way. The battle between Jor-El and Zor-El was hugely destructive. Many people claim that Jor-El was only fighting his brother so that he could secure world domination himself.

"Once again, hope for humanity faded. As a race, humans were slowly being wiped out by the destructive Kryptonian brothers. Would they push the human race into extinction, or just enslave it?

"People all around the world started acting impulsively. Some people got into violent fights over unimportant issues. Some splurged and spent every last penny in their bank accounts. The world was in a state of panic."

The video then showed clips of big cities that were in states of uproar and chaos. It was frightening to see.

"But then suddenly, Jor-El and Zor-El disappeared. They simply vanished from the face of the Earth leaving no indication as to what had occurred. It took a while for the world to realize that the Kryptonian brothers had left. After three days of silence, though, the world realized that they were once again alone. The Kryptonians were finally gone.

"The world rejoiced. Elated citizens paraded the streets worldwide. Finally the time of terror was over.

"Soon, the world slowly began to rebuild. It took some time; in fact, the world still hasn't entirely recovered from the events of those months so many years ago. Nonetheless, it has still greatly advanced since the dark year of 1976.

"And now, in the twenty-first century, we can look back on this tragic event and reflect on how this changed the world. We can reflect on the stubborn determination of humanity. Despite insurmountable odds, humans managed to push on through to the light in the end.

"How much more can humanity endure? We have now faced and survived a larger threat than ever encountered before. We survived an alien invasion! Will the Kryptonians ever come back? We can never know for sure. But it has been twenty-five years since a Kryptonian was seen on Earth. With every passing day since the Kryptonian Occupation, the world grows more optimistic. As always, the unbreakable spirit of humanity continues to guide us into the future."

Some final pictures and clips showed, and then credits rolled down the screen.

Mr. Kane turned on the lights and ejected the VHS from the VHS player. "So," he said, "there's the Kryptonian invasion in a nutshell. But in this unit, we're going to look at it in a bit more detail. We're going to talk about how it affected governments, security, and the overall attitude of humankind. Please take out your notebooks…"

Mr. Kane to talk about the details of the invasion, while the class took notes. But eventually, his lesson evolved into a discussion. People in the class started sharing stories and talking about all the horrible things the Kryptonians caused. One girl in the class claimed that her mother had actually witnessed Zor-El burning down a building. The general consensus among the class was: Kryptonians are evil. There was no argument to that.

With every story he heard, Clark felt more and more guilty. He knew he shouldn't feel this way… after all, these events had happened long before he was born, but he still felt responsible. He felt like he was on the side of the Kryptonians and that everyone in the class was against him. How would they feel if they knew who he really was?

Clark recalled a sentence at the end of the video: "Will the Kryptonians ever come back?" Well, he knew the answer to that question. Yes.

At the end of the class, Clark turned to Pete and tentatively asked him the question that had been on his mind for the latter part of the hour. "Pete… if you found out that there was a Kryptonian still on Earth… say in Smallville… what would you do?"

An enraged expression flitted over Pete's face for a fraction of a second. "I would – I don't know… I'd want to kill it! You don't even know how much those… _things_ have affected my family. Not like I could kill a Kryptonian. But I would try."

"Huh," Clark responded shortly, not really knowing what to say. Inside, he was shocked. The idea that his best friend wanted him dead was unsettling, to say the least. He could never reveal himself as he is; he knew this. He could only imagine Pete's face if he found out the truth… he'd be terrified, and who could blame him? But Clark never wanted Pete (or anyone) to be afraid of him.

The rest of the day seemed to go by at an agonizingly slow pace. Every action Clark made, he was extra cautious. He made minimal contact with others, and flinched when people brushed by him in the hallway. He was so paranoid that something would happen; that he would hurt someone by accident.

At the end of the day, Clark stopped by the Torch to find out just what Chloe had been so excited to tell him about.

She wasn't there when he walked in so he looked around… and something on the wall caught his eye.

It looked like a huge bulletin board plastered with all sorts of images and bits of magazines and newspaper articles. Upon closer inspection, Clark realized they were all pictures and articles of strange and abnormal things that seemed logically impossible. One headline read 'Area man gains finger on left hand – loses one on right'.

What were all of these articles for? Why did Chloe have them? Suddenly he heard a voice from behind him.

"Do you like it?"

He turned around to see Chloe grinning at him.

She walked forward. "I call it the Wall of Weird. It's got every strange and unexplained thing that's happened in Smallville since the meteor shower."

"The meteor shower?" Clark asked.

Chloe grinned even wider. "Yeah, Clark, that's what I was going to tell you. You see, none of this weird stuff even _existed_ in Smallville before the meteor shower. I have a theory that the meteor rocks that fell to Earth are somehow affecting people… turning them into mutants or something!"

Clark took a moment to digest this.

Chloe continued excitedly, "And I think that Jeremy Creek is meteor infected – how else could he have somehow shot electricity out of his hands?"

Clark stepped back, realization coming upon him. "So you're saying that all this" he gestured at the Wall of Weird "is because of the meteor shower?"

Chloe just grinned again, clearly oblivious to Clark's growing discomfort. "Yeah, isn't it _weird?_" She sounded very excited by all of this.

"Weird…" Clark repeated, not really listening anymore. Well this was just great. Recently he'd found out he was a Kryptonian, which was bad enough. Now he realized that the meteor shower in which he'd fallen to Earth had done all this damage. The memories of the meteor shower had haunted the town of Smallville since the day it had happened… of course for most of Clark's life he'd thought he had nothing to do with it. Now he knew he had everything to do with it.

He glimpsed an old cover of Time magazine. A dark-haired little girl in a fairy outfit was sobbing. He knew who this was; he'd heard the story around school before. It was Lana Lang.

Her parents had been killed that day; obliterated by a meteor rock. And her parents weren't the only ones to die that day.

Clark walked back from the wall again, horrified. He had arrived on Earth in that meteor shower; it had happened because of him. The deaths of all the victims of the meteor shower, including Lana's parents, were on him. It was his fault.

He had killed before he had even learned how to talk. He wasn't any better than the other Kryptonians. He was just like them.

"It's all my fault," he whispered.

"What?" Chloe asked.

Clark wheeled towards her, suddenly angry. "Why didn't you show me this before?" he demanded.

Chloe was taken aback. "Well, I don't know… I never thought you wanted to see it…"

"I have to go," Clark said and briskly walked out of the Torch, leaving behind Chloe, who was completely bemused.

He continued to walk at a barely human pace until he found a place where no one could see him. Then he sped home, as fast as he could.

His mind was in a whirl when he found himself in his bedroom seconds later. He was almost considering running away again. But he had learned from before that that was not the best option. But what _could_ he do? He felt like he was diseased or something… that he couldn't make human contact because he'd just end up making people sick. Or killing people.

What was happening to him? _People take obliviousness for granted_, Clark thought sadly. _I was so much happier when I was oblivious_.

He'd had enough of this! He wanted all this stress and fear to be gone. He collapsed onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Right now, it was the only thing he could do.


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter, but I have some good ideas for future chapters and I'm looking forward to writing them. For this particular chapter I was trying to form my storyline around one of the storylines from the tv show, with some big changes of course, but I found it kind of frustrating to write, so I think that in future chapters I will have Clark develop new abilities and learn about his roots at different times than he did in the actual show. It'll just give me a bit more freedom with the story.**

He hadn't ever wanted to be in this situation. He hadn't ever wanted to fight someone. In an effort to rebel against his Kryptonian ancestry, Clark had sworn to be as non-violent as he could possibly be.

But in a town like Smallville, it sometimes seemed like a bit of violence was unavoidable.

Chloe had been right about the meteor rocks… they were infecting people. They gave people abilities that were, in some respects, just as powerful as Clark's. But Clark was at the advantage of having more weapons in his arsenal (although he didn't like to think of it that way). While the meteor freaks generally had one power, Clark had a few powers, and knew how to use them, which meant he was really the only person who could stop the meteor-infected from endangering the residents of Smallville.

But as Clark fought with his old-friend-turned-bug-boy, Greg Arkin, a sickening feeling had overcome him. Here he was, fighting against a human (more or less), and he felt like he was betraying humanity. He much would have preferred to reason this over with Greg… to talk with him. But Greg didn't want to talk.

Clark felt a blow hit his chest with nearly as much force as he could deliver and stumbled backwards.

"Give it up, Clark!" Greg shouted.

Clark straightened up and advanced towards Greg with the firm determination of what he had to do.

* * *

Clark was bringing apples to the Farmer's Market when he met Lex again. He was, as usual, looking a bit longingly towards Lana. Whitney had his arm draped around her shoulder. So he didn't notice immediately when Lex came up behind him and asked, "Who's that?"

Clark turned to face him, but then immediately looked at his feet. "Oh… no one."

"No one," Lex repeated. "I see. She's pretty… you should ask her out on a date."

"She has a boyfriend." Clark gestured to Whitney.

"So? He's just an obstacle. If you like her, you should go for it." His words were sincere.

Clark frowned slightly. Lex's approach to problems was much different than what he had been taught growing up. "Nah…" he finally responded, but he felt a bit unsure.

Lex shrugged. "Well, whatever you prefer." But he wasn't giving up.

At that moment, Clark's father came by.

Lex spoke up. "Mr. Kent, it's good to see you." He held out his hand.

Jonathan hesitated, and then shook it. "Lex." He nodded. Then he turned to Clark. "Clark, will you help unload the rest of these apples?"

"Sure," Clark returned, and Jonathan walked away.

"At least I got a handshake this time," Lex commented.

Clark gave him an apologetic look and then carried a bushel of apples over to his father.

Lex watched Clark as he moved away, noticing the position of his body. He seemed to be walking very upright for someone who was carrying a heavy bushel of apples. Was Clark different than most people, or was Lex looking too deeply into his actions? At this point, it was hard to tell. He'd keep watching Clark… find out if there was really more to him than met the eye.

In the meantime, he wanted to get out of this market. He grabbed an apple that had fallen into the back of the Kents' pickup truck and bit into it. He frowned; it was overripe. He dropped it onto the ground and promptly turned on his heel to head back to his car.

* * *

Clark glanced back up at Lana as he placed his bushel of apples on the grass. She was talking to an old friend of his, Greg Arkin. She turned slightly so she was facing the sun, and her neck flashed green.

Clark blinked and looked away. The green rock attached to Lana's necklace was a meteor rock, the only thing that could weaken Clark. Whenever it glittered in the sun it hurt his eyes, like bright objects hurt normal people's eyes. He could look directly at the sun without a problem yet a simple glowing meteor rock was too much.

Clark had discovered his weakness to the meteor rocks at an early age… he was maybe five or six years old then. He'd been playing baseball in a remote field with his father when he hit a ball too far and sent it flying. He ran off to fetch the lost ball but on the way encountered a small chunk of a meteor rock.

He couldn't run away; he could only stumble as a searing pain shot through his body. As young children do, he immediately started sobbing and his father ran after him as quick as he could to find out what was the matter.

His father lifted him up and carried him away from the area and the pain left as quick as it had come.

So, Kryptonians clearly weren't invincible. Clark had wondered why humans hadn't learned of the Kryptonians' weakness and used it against them, but then he realized that they had come before the meteor shower had occurred.

It was almost a relief, that there was something that could stop the evil Kryptonians if they ever decided to return… and yet the meteor rock also incapacitated Clark. That scared him a lot. If anyone figured out that he was Kryptonian _and_ figured out his weakness, they could use the meteor rocks to hurt him. In fact, if someone figured out his secret, they almost definitely would use the meteor rocks against him, considering how much hate humanity harboured for Kryptonians.

Clark had encountered several meteor rocks since… but he had learned to keep away from them. He only felt pain when he was in close enough proximity to a meteor rock; from further away he only felt nauseous and acted clumsily. So, when he started to stumble, he knew it was time to turn around and walk the opposite direction.

But sometimes, it was difficult to turn around and walk away. The meteor rock on Lana's necklace glittered menacingly, mocking Clark as it always did while he endlessly stumbled towards it.

He hated that necklace. Why did Lana have to wear it? He could never get close to her without making a fool of himself. She probably just thought he was a clumsy nerd.

It was funny because Clark was actually perfectly coordinated; more so than any human. Outside of the influence of the meteor rocks, he had never once tripped in his life. He never dropped objects and had perfect aim. But the meteor rocks changed all that, and when he was around Lana he became the most uncoordinated person in the vicinity.

He gave a small sigh. Maybe one day she would let go of her past and stop wearing the necklace. He headed back over to the truck to pick up the last barrel of apples.

* * *

It didn't take long for Greg Arkin to reveal himself. After all, a bug's life was short. And Greg Arkin was in love with a particular Smallville High cheerleader: Lana Lang (shocker).

He would do whatever he could to have her… his primary competition had been Whitney Fordman, Lana's boyfriend. It was necessary to eliminate Whitney before he could capture Lana.

So he leapt upon Whitney's truck as he was driving down the road, punching in the roof and finally causing Whitney to lose control of his vehicle. The truck flipped around several times on the hard road and Greg thought he must have died. He would have preferred to make sure the job was finished, but then a car came behind him and he was forced to speed away.

But Whitney didn't die… in fact he was barely injured. Somehow, he had survived the crash. Either way, though, he'd been shaken up and was no longer a threat to Greg. He was scared. Greg turned to a new threat.

Greg had now spied a new competitor for Lana's affections… his old friend Clark Kent. He hadn't let Whitney get in between him and Lana and he certainly wasn't going to allow Clark to take his place. So he quietly hid up in the rafters of Clark's barn and waited.

When he could wait no longer, he finally ambushed Clark and his father. His plan was to scare them; to hurt them. To show them that he was the one in control, and the one they should be looking out for. He would kill if necessary.

He didn't manage to injure either Clark or his father, as it turned out, but he was confident he had scared them. They wouldn't want to confront him again, he thought smugly.

Of course, he was wrong. He didn't realize it at the time, but revealing himself to Clark would be his worst mistake.

* * *

Clark walked slowly towards the Torch, where he knew he would find Chloe. He was hesitant about approaching her again… he realized he had been unnecessarily harsh with her when she revealed the Wall of Weird to him. After all, she didn't know that Clark was connected to the meteor shower. And Chloe, being Chloe, would want some answers. But he needed her help to find out just what Greg Arkin was up to.

He walked through the door. "Hey, Chloe." She looked up. "I need your help."

Chloe raised her eyebrows. "Oh, so today you need my help, do you? You don't feel like shouting at me for no apparent reason?"

Clark looked back at her apologetically. "I'm sorry, Chloe, I was way out of line before."

Chloe gave him a searching look. "You know, I don't get it. Why would you get so angry over the Wall of Weird? It's not like you have anything to do with it."

For a few seconds, Clark was caught without an answer. As good of a friend as Chloe was, she could be a pain when she went into 'reporter mode'.

"I… was upset you hadn't told anyone else. Meteor-infected people could be a big problem in Smallville." That was a bad lie. It probably wouldn't fool her.

There was a brief pause as Chloe looked at him suspiciously, then she spoke. "Well it's still just a theory… a _good_ theory might I add. But I don't think anyone would believe me until I got some hard evidence, which I intend to get... somehow."

Clark braced himself for more interrogation from Chloe, but it didn't come. At least not now.

"So," she said, "what's up?"

"Um, Greg Arkin, do you remember him?"

Chloe frowned. "Well yeah, he's the science reporter for the Torch. But he's gone kind of MIA… hasn't written anything for over a week. Why?"

"I think… he may be meteor-infected."

Chloe looked intrigued. "Really? What did he do?"

"He attacked me and my dad in the barn last night." Clark frowned. "He could do things normal people couldn't do… walk on walls for one. And he left weird footprints on the ceiling."

"Maybe we should go check this out… look around Greg's house. Do you know where he lives?"

"Yeah," Clark responded, "we used to be friends. I used to go over to his house all the time."

"Alright, then let's check it out after school. We'll bring Pete, too." She stood up and grabbed her bag, but then paused suddenly and looked up at Clark with a concerned expression on her face.

"Clark, is everything alright?"

Clark was surprised. "Yes, why wouldn't it be?"

Chloe looked away. "No reason."

Later that afternoon, Chloe, Clark and Pete went to Greg Arkin's house, only to stumble upon the fact that Clark's suspicions were right… Greg Arkin was definitely not normal.

They found some unsettling things… a room filled with webs and shed skin in the bathtub. But then they found something increasingly eerie. A video tape of Lana, sitting near a tree, reading.

So it was Lana that Greg was after. Clark felt a thrill of anger. He wouldn't let Greg hurt her.

They continued to search the house and finally stumbled upon the most disgusting sight of all: Greg's mother, dead, thin and yellowing, wrapped up in a cocoon.

"Lana!" Clark gasped. Was Greg going to kill her like he killed his mother? He had to stop him.

He ran out of the room to a spot where neither Pete nor Chloe could see him, then he supersped away. He knew a place where Greg could be. It was out in the forest, near Greg's house. Clark had remembered the old tree fort of Greg's that he, Greg and Pete had played in when he was little.

He finally spied the old tree house, far up above him. Would Greg be there? He sped to the top, and gasped. Lana lay on the floor, unconscious, under a thin film of something that looked like a web. Lana's meteor rock necklace glowed in his presence, but despite his growing discomfort, Clark still moved forwards to help her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Clark looked up to find Greg Arkin sitting in the corner of the tree fort, a smug expression on his face.

"Greg." Clark made a motion to move forwards, but suddenly Greg gave him a hard shove, and he found himself falling backwards. He crashed through the wall of the tree fort and fell all the way down to the ground. He was now a far enough distance from Lana's necklace that the fall didn't hurt, but it was enough to disorient him. Greg jumped down to meet him.

He grinned. "Trying to be the hero, Clark? Want to save your girlfriend?" Before Clark was ready to respond, Greg grabbed him and hurled him into the forest.

There was a resounding crash as Clark slammed into a couple of tall trees, knocking them over entirely. He stood up quickly, so Greg couldn't get the upper hand on him. He thought, as hard as he could, of a way to stop Greg without using violence. His parents had always taught him – with good reason – that violence was never the answer, and Clark had always upheld these morals.

But he had a feeling that Greg couldn't be reasoned with right now.

It was eerily quiet… Greg was nowhere to be seen, or heard. And then –

Greg leapt on him and Clark acted out of instinct, grabbing him and hurling him away.

He inwardly gasped. Had he hurt Greg? Had he _killed_ him? He almost didn't want to find out. He supersped in the direction he had thrown Greg and found him leaning with his back to a tree, still very conscious but in a bit of discomfort.

He looked up at Clark, no longer smug but now a bit wary. "Clearly I'm not the only one who's different."

Then he gave a smug smile. "But I can still beat you." He suddenly jumped up and pushed Clark forwards.

Clark stumbled backwards, unprepared, once again, for the attack.

"Give it up, Clark!"

Clark advanced towards his old friend. "Greg!" he shouted. "You have to stop! You don't realize what you're doing!"

Greg sneered. "No, Clark; I don't think _you_ realize what I'm doing! I'm finally powerful! I'm finally in control! And I plan to hold onto this!"

"No," Clark argued back, "you're a slave to your instincts!"

"Shut up!" Greg screamed, grabbing Clark by the shoulders and attempting to throw him once more.

But this time Clark was prepared. He grabbed Greg and pinned him against a tree. Greg struggled, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't escape Clark's grasp.

Suddenly an expression crossed his face which shocked Clark: it was fear. He wasn't as powerful as Clark, and suddenly he was at Clark's mercy. Clark's grip loosened for a moment and Greg took advantage of his indecision, breaking free.

This time, however, Greg didn't try to hurt Clark. Instead, he jumped directly upwards, disappearing into the trees overhead. He wasn't fighting Clark, now; he was hiding from him.

"Greg!" Clark shouted, looking up into the trees. "I'm not trying to hurt you! I just want to make sure you don't hurt my friends!"

There was silence.

"Greg?" Clark looked around cautiously. He could drop down at any minute. Suddenly he heard a small snap near the top of a pine tree.

He climbed up the side of the tree at superspeed and found Greg balanced on a tree bough.

Clark looked down and his stomach churned. The ground was quite a distance away. The fall couldn't hurt him but he still wasn't a huge fan of heights.

Greg was shocked that Clark had managed to follow him. "How did you get up here?"

Clark slowly edged towards Greg across the tree bough. He was nervous that his extra weight would cause it to break. "Greg, you need help."

"I don't need help, Clark," Greg responded bitterly as his eyes darted back and forth, searching for an escape. The tree bough was in an open area… there weren't any other trees in a good jumping distance. It was also very high up, which meant the ground was dangerously far away.

Greg edged backward as Clark moved towards him, balancing on narrower and narrower parts of the bough. Then he spotted a potential escape. The nearest tree to this bough was about fifteen metres away, which was quite a distance from his current position, but if he ran to the edge of the bough then jumped, he could make it.

"Please, Greg." Clark said. "This isn't you."

Suddenly, Greg made his move. Keeping his body low, he darted towards the edge of the bough and made the motions to jump, but –

He had misjudged the strength of the bough. As Greg had leant down to jump, the extra force he exerted had caused the branch to snap and sent him plummeting towards the earthy floor.

"Greg!" Clark shouted. He leaned forward, jumping after Greg, trying to save him but… it was too late. He fell after Greg. He tried to reach him, but he was having difficulty controlling himself in free-fall.

Greg hit the ground with a thud, Clark following only milliseconds later. Immediately, Clark got up and supersped towards Greg. Greg's body was splayed in awkward position, and his eyes were open.

Oh God. Was he…?

"Greg!" Clark tried shaking him. "Greg?" He felt for a pulse. There was none.

He backed away. Was this his fault? Had he done this?

No, he reasoned, he couldn't have. It was Greg's own actions that killed him, nothing more. It couldn't be his fault.

But Clark couldn't push away the feeling that he was responsible. After all, if he hadn't fought Greg, then Greg wouldn't be dead. But at the same time, if he hadn't fought Greg, then Lana could be dead, and possibly several more.

He didn't want things to end like this. He realized he had acted impulsively, and fought Greg without having a real plan of what to do. And now Greg lay before him, dead.

Suddenly, Clark began to panic. What would he do with Greg? What would people say? Would they think he was a murderer?

And he had a more chilling thought. Was his Kryptonian side starting to take over? Was it pushing him to destroy humanity? As he looked at the dead body in front of him, it seemed more and more likely.

Clark simply didn't know what to do or say… he couldn't just run away from this! But then suddenly, before his eyes, something seemed to happen.

Greg's body looked like it was disintegrating, or rotting at an extremely fast pace. In the blink of an eye he was replaced by a swarm of insects which quickly scattered away in their own respective directions.

Clark grimaced. These insects must have been the source of Greg's meteor powers. Now that Greg was dead, they were free to return to nature.

Greg's body was gone at least, but Clark's conscience wasn't clear. He was still shocked and astounded by the event. He'd never witnessed someone's death before, let alone a death he had caused. He continued to stare at the spot where Greg's body had lain, until he finally remembered the reason he had fought him in the first place.

"Lana."

He sped back towards the tree fort to find Whitney already helping Lana. Of course. Whitney was her knight in shining armour.

* * *

Clark never revealed to Pete or Chloe or Lana what happened that day, but he couldn't keep his feelings a secret from his parents.

He confessed everything that had happened to them, from him and Chloe and Pete breaking into Greg's house to his fatal fight with Greg. When he reached his fight with Greg, he felt feelings of despair and panic overtake him again.

"I killed him," Clark whispered. His throat felt dry.

"Clark, it wasn't on purpose," his mother reassured him. "You didn't intend to hurt him."

"But I still did!" Clark responded, a bit hysterically. "I still killed him! You don't understand! When I came back home I was so afraid to get near anyone – even make physical contact with anyone – because I was worried what might happen! I thought I might kill someone, by accident! And now…" He trailed off, but it was clear what he was referring to.

His parents both seemed at a loss for words.

"What if this is the first step?" he asked despairingly.

"First step of… what?" his mother asked, although she already knew what he was going to say.

"The first step towards becoming… a full-grown Kryptonian! I'm already getting stronger and faster… why don't we also throw homicidal onto the list."

Clark's father frowned. "Don't be ridiculous! This was an accident! You're not a murderer and you won't ever be!"

"But how do you know for sure?" Clark responded quietly. "I still have the rest of my life ahead of me… how can we know for sure _what_ will happen?"

**Clark's a bit melodramatic I think. I should have put this story in the angst category :P He'll get less angsty in later chapters though, I promise**


	6. Chapter 6

**I found parts of this chapter a bit awkward to write... you'll find out why.**

Three months passed. Battles with meteor freaks became commonplace to Clark. It seemed they just kept popping up, and Clark was the only person powerful enough to stop them. Since Greg Arkin, no more deaths had occurred. Clark was very careful.

If someone he was fighting did something stupid enough to endanger themselves, Clark would save them. He could never seem to reason with the meteor-infected… it was like the meteor rock took control of their minds and made them unnecessarily aggressive. Often, though, he had to knock them out, or they would just keep coming at him.

Then he would send an anonymous tip to the police and they would deal from the meteor freaks from that point on. Clark learned that they were sent to an institution called Belle Reve, where their meteor powers were supposedly suppressed and they were put through rehabilitation. He realized that it must be tough for them, being stuck there, but at least they were out of society.

As he was required to fight meteor freaks, Clark had grown more used to his abilities. After all, they were now necessary to have; and he wasn't hurting people with them…he was helping people. He slowly grew stronger and faster. He became more adept at fighting… he was never caught off guard, contrary to his episode with Greg Arkin.

And although Clark was finally accepting of the role he had come to play, his parents were a bit nervous about his decision to act as Smallville's self-appointed hero. They didn't like the fact that he had to use violence.

They had always strongly emphasized to Clark the dangers of violence. Clark's parents had always wanted him to be as non-aggressive as possible, for obvious reasons. And they had raised him well; Clark had grown to be gentle, caring and kind. But suddenly things had changed…

His mother confronted him about it one evening. "Clark," she began tentatively, "do you really think that what you're doing is necessary? You shouldn't have to use this much violence."

Clark gave her back a slightly pained look. "But Mom, these meteor-infected people… they're hurting innocent people! I can't just stand back and watch that happen! And they won't listen to reason… I'm the only one that can stop them."

Martha couldn't argue with that logic, as much as she wanted to.

So Clark continued to develop his abilities, to learn how to use them and to take down more meteor freaks. He also learned something new … the meteor rocks couldn't affect him through lead. He kept that in mind in case it ever became useful.

He even developed a new ability as he was fighting a meteor-infected girl named Tina Greer. He learned how to see through solid objects, at varying degrees. For instance, he could adjust his vision to make everything look like an X-ray, or he could simply look through objects as if they were invisible, observing the scenes behind them in living colour.

Despite the fact that Clark was using his abilities to help people, the development of his powers only seemed to freak his parents out. His mother in particular. Whenever she saw him using his powers, a funny expression came over her face… something akin to a grimace. And both his parents cringed when he appeared at superspeed.

He knew why they reacted this way… it gave them bad memories. After all these years, the memories still remained. Clark knew his parents still loved him… but of course they hated his roots. Perhaps they hated how he was growing stronger and faster, but he couldn't help that. Humans grew stronger and faster, too, just less… dramatically. He couldn't stop his powers from developing.

He had always tried to use his powers as little as possible in front of his parents. He had known for a long time that his abilities bothered them. From the first time that he saw his father give him a small wince, he knew it was time to cut back on using his abilities.

And his parents had clearly appreciated that. Clark seemed much more human; it was something they could deal with. But now Clark was required to use his abilities, and suddenly, tension had re-entered the household. Because when Clark was using his abilities it became painfully obvious that, no matter how long he'd been on Earth for, Clark was still not human.

* * *

Over the past three months, Lex and Chloe had also been growing closer and closer to Clark's secret. Particularly Lex. He seemed to be orbiting around the mystery that was Clark Kent, but he wasn't quite able to touch ground.

Lex had had a video tape made of his car crash with Clark, based on the indents in his car and the damage to the bridge. The video displayed his car driving directly into Clark, after which the car and Clark fell off the bridge together. And from his own memory, Lex could have sworn that he had hit Clark… so how was it that Clark had survived?

And when Lex had learned that Clark seemed to make mysterious appearances and crime scenes he grew even more suspicious. What exactly was he up to? Often, when he spoke to Clark, he couldn't shake the feeling that Clark was hiding something from him.

Lex slowly developed an obsession with finding out Clark's secret. He designated an entire room in his house to Clark research. He put so much effort into discovering Clark's secret that he felt almost ashamed at some times.

After all, Clark had actually become quite a good friend to Lex. He was perhaps one of the closest friends Lex had ever had. When he spoke, his emotions were sincere, and he confided in Lex if he had a problem. And Lex liked that feeling – he liked being confided in, he liked knowing that he actually mattered to someone. And if Clark ever found out about Lex's research, Lex would probably lose a valuable friendship.

But something in Lex forced him to keep on searching; to keep on digging. He had an incurable curiosity and a sharp eye. He had told his fair share of lies before and he knew when someone was lying to him. And there was something…_ something_ that Clark was keeping to himself; Lex just had to figure out what that was.

At the same time, Chloe was also growing increasingly suspicious of Clark. Just like Lex, she had the ability to tell the difference between the truth and a lie. And Clark seemed to like to tell lies, for whatever reason.

Chloe also suspected that Clark was the one who incapacitated meteor freaks and sent anonymous tips to the police. After all, he always seemed strangely interested in them, and he was always spotted at crime scenes. The pieces fit. But the question was… how did he stop the meteor freaks? They were quite powerful.

She'd had a hunch about Clark for quite a while, but she'd never been sure it was right. For a while now she'd wondered… was Clark meteor-infected? No normal person could stop so many meteor freaks and live to tell the tale… he had to be something more than human.

But all the meteor freaks she'd seen or heard of had been insane; aggressive, dangerous, or even homicidal. And as far as she was concerned, Clark was none of these things. He hadn't shown the slightest hint of a meteor ability before… so her hunch couldn't be right, could it?

But there was still something off about Clark. Something different. She didn't know quite what it was, but Clark just didn't seem entirely normal.

* * *

Winter approached quickly. People were beginning to get in the holiday spirit, and Clark would have loved to join in, but first he had to tackle the deathly beast that was… science class.

He and Chloe had partnered up to work on a research assignment on human cloning that was due after they came back from Christmas break. He hated it when teachers gave assignments over holidays. It almost seemed like they were just doing it to spite the students.

But at least it wasn't an individual assignment. He had Chloe to work with, and that made things a lot better.

He now stood on Chloe's doorstep, ringing her doorbell. He had headed over to Chloe's house to begin working on the project.

Chloe's front door opened, but it was neither Chloe nor Chloe's father that greeted Clark.

He was faced with a girl, maybe a bit older than him, with light brown hair and curves in all the right places. She was also reasonably tall; he didn't have to look down much to meet her eye-to-eye. She looked very self-assured.

"Hi," she said.

Clark just stared at her.

She looked impatient. "What do you what?"

Clark shook himself back to his senses. "Uh… sorry, is Chloe here?"

"Yeah, I'll get her." She turned away from the door and shouted, "Chloe! There's some guy here for you!"

"Coming!" Chloe shouted back from a distance.

There was an awkward moment when Clark and the girl stood facing each other, in silence. Then Chloe appeared, bounding down the stairs with a grin on her face, and the girl disappeared to the side with an expression that clearly expressed: _well that was awkward._

"Clark!" Chloe greeted him. "It must be cold outside! Come in!"

He stepped across her threshold and closed the front door behind him, pretending to shiver. "Thanks." He pulled off his jacket. "Uh… where should I put this?"

"Here, I'll grab that," Chloe offered, taking his coat from him and hanging it up in the closet. "Just leave your boots here at the front."

As he was taking off his boots, Clark asked, "Who was that? The girl who answered the door?" He turned his head in the direction he had seen her disappear.

"Oh, that's just my cousin Lois. She's visiting for the holidays."

"Huh," Clark responded, absent-mindedly.

"So… I guess we should get started then," Chloe said.

"Yeah, I guess so," Clark replied, and they headed to the living room computer to begin researching.

A few hours, a bag of chips and six pages of research later, Clark decided it was time to go home.

After she had ushered Clark out the front door, Chloe turned around to find Lois grinning at her.

"So," she began, "Clark, huh? That's an old fashioned name."

"You were eavesdropping, I see," Chloe returned with a smile.

Lois shrugged. There was no denying it. Then suddenly her expression turned mischievous.

"You like him, don't you?"

"No," Chloe responded, but her emotions betrayed her as a small smile flitted across her face.

Lois continued to grin. "You can't lie to me, cuz. I've known you for too long." Then she gave a small frown. "Would've thought you would have a crush on someone a little… _brighter_, though."

Chloe frowned in confusion.

"Oh well," Lois continued, "to each his – or her – own." Then she changed topic. "God, Chloe, you don't know how happy I am to be back here. I was just itching to get away from the General… always talking about Lucy is such a perfect daughter and doesn't do anything wrong, and how I'm the troublemaker."

Chloe grinned. "Well I'm glad you're back, Lo. It's been a boring few years without you."

A sly smile lit up Lois's face. "Well then I guess I'll have to make sure things aren't boring for the week I'm here, Chlo."

* * *

"Can you please pass the beans?" Martha asked Clark. He nodded and handed them to her and she served them onto her plate.

"So, how was your day with Chloe?" she asked.

"Pretty good," Clark responded. "We got a lot of work done. I don't think it'll take that much longer to finish."

"And your report is on human cloning, is it?" Clark's father pitched in. "That's an interesting topic. You know, that reminds me of something I read in the paper a few days ago…" And he launched into a story.

Clark wasn't really listening, though. Something else was on his mind. Lois. He wondered how long she was staying; maybe he could see her again.

She was good-looking, but in a different way than Lana. Lana was pretty, but Lois just seemed more… mature. His mind started to wander. His parents' conversation sounded like a distant hum. (Awkward awkward awkward!)

Suddenly, his head started to hurt, like he had a bad migraine. He felt like he was burning. His eyes started to water and he started to blink fiercely.

He put a hand to his head and bent over. His parents suddenly stopped talking and looked at him sharply. They both stood up from their chairs and ran towards him.

"Clark, what's wrong?" his father asked him, concerned.

"I don't – "

Suddenly, he opened his eyes widely and the chair Martha had been sitting in seconds earlier burst into flames.

There was a sudden, shocked silence. Then Clark rushed over to the chair to put out the flames.

The silence continued as the three Kents stared at the burned chair, astonished. It wasn't destroyed – Clark had put out the fire quickly enough to avoid that – but it was still clearly damaged.

Jonathan and Martha finally looked at their son, still not quite sure what to say. Clark tried to avoid looking at them, but for a moment lost his restraint and glimpsed at their eyes.

They looked a little apprehensive, unsure and maybe a little… fearful? Clark still felt shocked. He couldn't believe what had just happened. But he couldn't remain at the kitchen table with his parents looking at him like that.

Wordlessly, he put his dishes into the sink and ran upstairs to his bedroom.

* * *

Jonathan was struck with a memory. He hadn't thought about it for years but now suddenly it was back, bubbling up to the surface of his mind.

It was 1976, the year of the Kryptonian invasion. Jonathan and Martha had the misfortune of being in the wrong place in the wrong time.

That was when Martha was still very much a city girl, adept in the ways of the urban jungle. Jonathan and Martha's relationship was still young. Martha was studying in New York and Jonathan had decided to travel up, as a surprise, to visit her.

They were heading out of the door of her apartment building, smiling. Jonathan was carrying an old fashioned picnic basket and blanket… their plan was to picnic at Central Park.

But they never quite made it there.

They were passing close to Times Square when they noticed everyone was stopped, even people in cars. They were all absolutely still, like they were afraid, as they stared up at the big screen.

It appeared that Zor-El had threatened someone into making himself appear on the big screen. Everyone was shocked that he was in New York… they had heard about him on the news but of course never expected to directly encounter him.

Zor-El said his spiel per usual, but then he did something horrifying. When he was finished talking, he turned to a man near him and set upon him his heat vision. The man burst into flames and gave out an agonizing scream. Zor-El used his heat vision again and in seconds, the man turned to ashes.

"That," he announced steadily, "is what will happen if you disobey me."

Moments later he swooped out over the crowd, burning people at random. He laughed as people scrambled to run away.

Thankfully, that was the most he did to New York City… but it was horrifying nonetheless.

Videos in the news showed Zor-El using his heat vision a numerous amount of times; it seemed to be his weapon of choice. It was such a dangerous ability. It was incredibly powerful and incredibly deadly, and it was possibly the most destructive weapon in Zor-El's arsenal. Heat vision was so frightening because it allowed him to kill from afar, and that put Zor-El, _and _Jor-El for that matter, at a huge advantage to humans.

And heat vision was a distinctive power that humans could just not recreate. People had invented huge machine to do heavy lifting, automobiles to move quickly and airplanes and helicopters to fly. But nothing man had ever created could rival such a clean, efficient and destructive weapon as heat vision.

Finally, Kryptonians just _looked_ inhuman when they were using heat vision. Obviously the Kryptonians had amazing, inhuman abilities that most people couldn't even dream of… but they looked like humans. If you placed a Kryptonian in a group of humans, you couldn't point him or her out. Clark was proof of that. But when using heat vision, their eyes changed… they _glowed_ in a shockingly inhuman way, revealing them to be what they truly were.

And that's how, a split second before it happened, Jonathan knew that Clark was going to light that chair on fire. He had almost forgotten the inhuman way that Kryptonians' eyes glowed, until he saw it again a few minutes ago. And, well, this newfound power of Clark's had him a little scared.

It was starting to get difficult to raise Clark and to watch him grow up. As good and gentle and kind as he was, he seemed unable to fight who he was, or _what_ he was. Jonathan couldn't help but admit that he was a little frightened of Clark's abilities, and this new power had him even more frightened than the rest. He wished he could just find some way to make his son… human. Because he really did love Clark. But those abilities… they gave him bad memories.

Martha was cleaning up the kitchen table, putting on a calm façade but Jonathan knew that she was just as rattled as he was. She looked towards him, a trace of panic in her eyes. "What are we going to do, Jonathan?" Her voice sounded agitated.

"I…" Jonathan was at a loss for words. "I guess we'll have to support him… like we always do." He frowned.

"Through this?" Martha asked. She shook her head. "Jonathan, it's just… I _love_ Clark, you know I do but… this is just a difficult thing for me to face right now." Her voice broke slightly.

Jonathan spoke gently. "It had to happen sometime, Martha. Clark's… _Kryptonian_… and he's eventually going to develop all of his powers."

"I know," Martha responded, "but I feel like this has just sort of… snuck up on us. I mean, Clark has always acted perfectly human… I guess I was starting to believe he was. I mean, it just doesn't seem fitting, does it, that such a sweet boy like Clark could develop such a… such an _ability_." She said the last word with disgust.

"He's still Clark, Martha. It's not like developing heat vision will change his personality. He's still our son, and we can continue to raise him as such."

"I know, Jonathan, I know." Martha replied. "But if he starts to use heat vision regularly… I don't know if I'm entirely OK with that…"

Jonathan nodded his head in sombre agreement. "I know what you mean… but Clark's certainly not going to use it to hurt people. And if we don't let him learn to control it, then… there could be some bad consequences we really don't want to deal with." He felt a sudden chill at that thought.

"I…" Martha was very agitated. "I just need some time to digest this, that's all…" Then she turned away from Jonathan and resumed cleaning the kitchen.

Jonathan took the hint and walked out the front door to get some fresh air. It was strange that he was the rational one in this situation. Normally he was the impulsive one and Martha liked to solve problems by reasoning.

The truth was, he was no more OK with Clark's new ability than Martha was. It scared him. He just wanted it to be gone. But the reality was… Clark had now developed heat vision, and he was going to have it for the rest of his life.

They were just going to have to learn to deal with it. Jonathan drew in a deep and headed towards the back of the farm. He was going to need a long walk.

* * *

Clark lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Why did this have to happen now? He was starting to accept himself. He was starting to accept his powers. After all, he had a reason to use them… he was protecting his town from the meteor-infected.

Heat vision… wasn't something to shrug off. He had read about Kryptonians before. He had seen videos. He knew just how much people feared this one particular Kryptonian power. And now _he_ had heat vision. Oh joy.

He couldn't forget the way his parents had looked at him, that one moment after he had lit the chair on fire. It seemed, for one moment, that they didn't look at him as if he was their son. They looked at him as if he was a Kryptonian.

But he was, he thought, a little despairingly. He couldn't fight it. He couldn't fight his abilities. He clearly couldn't fight his heat vision. He wished he was just human! He wouldn't have to deal with nearly as many issues.

He needed to go out for a walk. Or even better, a run. He just needed some time to think.

He headed downstairs to find his mother cleaning dishes.

"Hi… mom," he said tentatively.

She looked up and gave him a smile that seemed a bit… forced. "Oh hi, honey. I'm just cleaning up. Do you need anything?" Something about her seemed a little stiff, like she was only pretending to be calm.

"Um… I'm going to go out for a walk," Clark said. "I'll be back soon."

"Ok." She nodded, but didn't look up at him.

As Clark headed out the front door, he thought he heard his mother let out a big breath.

He looked towards the road. Where did he want to go? He didn't really know. But he just wanted to get away from his house. Maybe he would just walk down Smallville Main Street to mull things over a little bit.

On a Saturday night it was a little crowded, which was something Clark was a bit nervous about, but he kept on through anyway. He just needed to get away from his problems for a bit.

But then he suddenly ran into Chloe and Lois on the street. They were laughing, clearly having a good time… and they were headed directly his way.

Clark tried to duck out of sight; he didn't really want to run into anyone he knew right now. Particularly Lois. There was something about her… he wasn't quite sure what, but he felt like she was somehow connected to his heat vision.

But it was too late. They saw him.

"Clark!" Chloe shouted, grinning.

Clark inwardly groaned, but smiled back at her. "Hey Chloe! Long time no see," he joked.

"Yeah," Chloe laughed in response. "I don't think I formally introduced you to my cousin yet, Clark," she said, and gestured to Lois. "This is Lois." She turned to Lois and gestured to Clark. "And Lois, this is Clark."

At that point, Lois and Chloe seemed to share a brief look.

"Hi," said Clark, briefly looking at Lois's face then quickly averting his gaze.

"Hey… Clark," Lois replied.

"So, what are you doing down here?" Chloe asked.

"Oh, just walking around," Clark responded casually.

"Hey, why don't you hang out with us," Lois suggested. "We can have a good time." She gave Chloe a pointed look and a grin.

Clark once again flashed a brief look at Lois's face as he responded. "No thanks… I think my parents want me back home soon."

Lois shrugged. Chloe looked a little disappointed. "Oh well, I guess I'll see you around Smallville," Lois said.

"See you, Clark," Chloe said.

They continued on their direction and Clark continued on his. But as they disappeared in the opposite direction, Clark couldn't resist turning his head and watching Lois walk away.

And then suddenly, once again, he began to feel a bit… strange. Oh no! Why had he looked? Why did he have to run into Lois in the first place! It was all a series of unfortunate events… combined with his libido, apparently.

He ducked into the alleyway behind the Talon. His eyes were beginning to sting. He didn't think he could hold this off much longer. He could feel the heat threatening to explode outwards beneath his eyelids. His head started to throb… he needed to let go… so he finally opened his eyes.

Thankfully he was surrounded by concrete, which didn't catch on fire. However, he still made quite a mess. The stream of heat coming from his eyes was more powerful than he thought, cutting ugly gashes across the concrete walls. He looked here and there, just trying to make it stop, oblivious for the moment that he was completely destroying the wall.

Trying to regain composure, he told himself to calm down, and eventually he did, and the fire stopped.

He stood back and surveyed the damage. Black lines ran across the concrete and in some places where his vision had rested too long, there were gashes in the stone. Thank goodness the Talon was just an empty movie theatre – nowhere incredibly populated – but the damage to the wall looked suspicious and someone would look in here eventually.

Ok, so maybe it hadn't been the best idea to go out walking tonight. Clark had only managed to do even more damage. He realized now, however, that he could not just ignore this power, however much he wanted to. This ability was determined to push itself to the surface. Clark had to learn how to control it.

For now, Clark decided to return home and get some well-needed sleep. But first he went out and bought a fire extinguisher.

* * *

When Jonathan woke up the next morning, he couldn't find Clark anywhere in the house. He wasn't in the barn either. He finally found Clark standing in the middle of the remote, snowy field behind the house, staring intently at an old scarecrow.

It didn't take much effort to guess what Clark was doing.

He didn't seem to be having much luck though. He frowned in frustration as the scarecrow remained resolutely undamaged.

"Clark!" Jonathan called.

Clark turned. "Oh, hey dad." He had a sort of sheepish expression on his face, like Jonathan had caught him doing something bad.

Jonathan gestured to the scarecrow. "Are you trying to light that on fire?" His words were casual but Clark surely noticed the tension in his face.

"Uh… yeah," Clark responded a bit awkwardly.

Jonathan inwardly sighed. He needed to get a grip on things. He looked Clark in the eye. "You know, Clark, your mother and I are here for you, no matter what happens. We're not going to abandon you just because you got a new power."

Clark gave a small smile. "I know that… I just don't like it, you know. But if I don't learn to control it I could end up accidentally doing a lot of damage, and I don't want that."

Jonathan nodded in agreement. Clark's words were true; he needed to learn how to control this power. But Jonathan didn't really want to watch. Heat vision still seemed… wrong to him and he didn't really want to witness it. But he did want to help to his son.

"Well, Clark, I think I'm going to go inside and have some breakfast but… good luck. I know that you can control this." He squeezed Clark's shoulder briefly before turning away.

"Thanks," Clark responded a bit faintly as he turned back to glare at the scarecrow.

As his father walked away, Clark was wondering if it was possible for him to gain control over this power. Ok, he had only been staring at the scarecrow for about ten minutes, but he hadn't made one bit of progress.

He kept thinking the words fire and anger and heat, but that didn't seem to do the trick. And he just got more and more angry as time passed and the scarecrow didn't light on fire. He just didn't know what… eye muscle, or whatever, he was supposed to use.

But maybe he was thinking the wrong thing. Maybe he was trying too hard. Using heat vision couldn't be so hard – he'd already done it twice without even meaning to.

And who had been there both times? Lois. It was making sense now. Maybe heat vision _did_ have to do with his emotions… but it wasn't anger he was looking for.

And suddenly, he felt it. A sudden warmth in his eyes. And for the first time, he wasn't trying to hold his heat vision back, so he didn't experience a huge headache like the times before.

He stared directly at the scarecrow's face, and let the heat explode from his eyes. It came out in one short, fast burst and the scarecrow ignited.

Clark smiled in satisfaction. He'd done it! He had controlled his new power, at least once. He put out the fire on the scarecrow. The top half was blackened, but the bottom remained untouched. Good. Now he could work on his aim. Maybe he could even put his heat vision to good use! Suddenly, his power didn't seem so frightening anymore.

This time, he tried to use his heat vision without thinking of Lois. Instead, he tried to remember exactly what muscle he had used to send out that last blast of heat.

With a bit of practice, he was finally able to use his heat vision on command, without thinking of… well, you know.

It seemed that, after all that stress, he was finally in control. But of course, things never stay the same, and soon Clark would find his control slip through his fingers yet again.

**Excited to write the next chapter... I already have it all planned out!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Oops I forgot to put those line-things between sections... my bad. I fixed it!**

A few more months passed and winter began to fade into spring. Clark had since learned to fully control his heat vision and all of his other abilities. He kept them in good use, continuing to protect the town from the meteor-infected.

He was starting to feel really happy with his control over his abilities. He'd been horrified by them for so long that he'd never really realized how he could use them to help people… but now he really was helping people and realized that his abilities had a true purpose. He was doing the opposite of what the other Kryptonians had done… maybe he wasn't destined to be like them after all.

Lois had since left Smallville and returned to live with her father and sister. Clark was a little disappointed, but since she had left he found himself growing a bit closer to Chloe. Things were going well for him. He felt happy, normal… human.

Now that any remnants of snow from the winter had melted, Clark's science class had gone on a geology field trip in the forest near Hob's Pond. They were doing a sort of scavenger hunt, where they had a list of types rocks and they were required to collect the rocks listed.

Clark, Pete and Chloe were all in the same science class and had joined together as a group. So far, they had found ten of the fifteen listed rocks. Clark had been a bit nervous, because one of the rocks on the list was a meteor rock. For that reason he had given Pete the bag of rocks to carry when they finally found a small piece of meteorite.

Clark was searching nearby Chloe and Pete when something interesting caught his eye. It was some sort of rock, but not one that was listed for them to find. It looked like some sort of gemstone… almost like a ruby. Curious, he picked it up to examine it.

And then something very strange happened to him. A feeling of warmth seemed to run through his hand where the rock touched, and down his arm. All of a sudden, he felt very… self-assured. It was strange, like all his guilt and stress had been miraculously wiped away. He grinned, and examined the rock. It glowed, like an old friend giving him a warm welcome. He slipped it into his pants pocket. He was going to hold onto this.

At that moment, Pete walked over. He wasn't carrying the bag of rocks anymore. "Did you find anything?"

"No," Clark responded nonchalantly.

Pete frowned. "Yeah, me neither. I think the rest of these rocks are invisible. Anyway, we should probably grab Chloe and head back to the bus, because I think we're leaving soon."

"Good plan, Pete," Clark said, a little mockingly. Pete looked a bit confused as he turned to go get Chloe.

On the bus ride back, some strange thoughts began to run through Clark's head. Why had he always been so scared of someone finding out about his secret? He was more powerful than any human being on the planet… what could anyone do to him if they found out? After all, he and his parents were the only ones who knew about the meteor rock, as far as he knew. If he really wanted to, he could make everyone on this bus do exactly as he wanted.

It was like a revelation; he had never quite realized before just how much power he had. He'd always hidden his abilities away, never embracing them as he should have been. But suddenly he understood that his powers were a gift, and he should use them to his advantage. Maybe even have a little fun with them.

Chloe, who was sitting next to him, turned. "You've been quiet this bus ride."

Clark turned slightly, but didn't face her. "I've just got a lot of things to… consider." He smiled.

Chloe grinned. "Ooh, what could be plaguing the mysterious Clark Kent?"

Clark now looked directly at her, an almost maniacal gleam in the back of his eye. "Let's say… in the next few days you may see a whole new side of me, Chloe." He looked away from her again.

Chloe frowned in confusion. She opened her mouth to respond, then closed it again, not quite sure what to say.

When the bus finally reached Smallville High and unloaded, Clark walked briskly away, without a word to either Pete or Chloe. Did he have some place to be?

Chloe turned to Pete, confused. "Does it seem like Clark's been acting a little… weird, today? Or is it just me?"

Pete shrugged. "Yeah, a bit, I guess" he agreed, watching Clark disappear into the distance. "Maybe something's going on in his family."

"Yeah, maybe," Chloe admitted, and turned back to Clark… but he was gone.

When Clark finally arrived home, he ran up to the loft, dropped his school bag and plopped down on the couch, relishing in his newfound power. He felt like the king of the world… he could do anything.

He took a brief glance at his school bag. Ordinarily, he would be doing homework or chores. But not today. Today he was going to do whatever he wanted.

He reached into his pocket and examined the rock he had found. A ray of sun hit it and it glittered. What _was_ this?

At that moment his father walked up to the loft. Clark quickly shoved the rock back in his pocket.

"Clark, I thought I'd find you here. The fence on the left side of the house is starting to break down, so it would be good if you mended it today as part of your chores."

Clark responded in disdain. "I don't really want to do chores today, Dad."

Jonathan paused. "Do you have a lot of homework?"

"No," Clark replied casually. "I just don't feel like doing anything today."

Jonathan stood there, looking confused for a few seconds, then chuckled. "Very funny. You don't have to do anything right away, just make sure you it done before going to bed." He turned to leave.

"I wasn't kidding."

Clark's father turned back to face him. "Pardon me?" He asked, a bit incredulous.

"I said: I wasn't kidding," Clark repeated. "I do chores and homework every single day when I come home! Why can't I have a break sometimes?"

Jonathan couldn't believe his ears. Clark had never acted like this before. "It's your responsibility as a member of this family to your chores, and your homework! You can't just choose when or when not to do things!"

Clark's temper was beginning to rise. "Well, I'm sick of all my responsibilities! Most kids my age don't even have to do stupid farm chores! Why should I?"

"Clark, you are _not_ any of your classmates. You are part of the Kent family and you have a responsibility to this farm. Now I don't want to hear _any_ more complaints from you! You'll do as you're told, end of story!"

"No, I won't," Clark replied, and he sped away before his father could respond.

He grinned as farmland flew past him. He knew his father was incensed. But something about defying him felt a little thrilling.

He walked down Smallville Main Street with a bit of spring in his step. He felt powerful; he had defied his father, who else could he defy next?

He was walking past the Beanery when he spied Chloe inside, sitting across a table from Pete. They seemed deep in discussion. He decided to walk in.

"What do you think is –" Pete was saying, but cut off suddenly when he saw Clark. "Clark! I didn't expect you to be here."

"And yet, somehow, here I am." Clark responded, grabbing a chair form a nearby table and pulling it over to sit next to them. He turned to Chloe. He hadn't noticed before, too involved in the discovery of his powers, but as he laid eyes on her, his feelings that had been beginning to form over the past few weeks bubbled up to the surface of his mind.

"Wow, Chloe," he remarked. "You look _good_ today."

Pete cocked his head and gave Clark a confused look. Chloe blushed, but immediately tried to brush off her feelings. "Uh, thanks," she responded, as casually as she could. There was a brief and awkward pause before she spoke again. "Um… excuse me for a sec; I'm just going to use the bathroom." And she got up and left.

As she walked away, Clark caught sight of a grin starting to spread itself across her face and smirked.

As soon as Chloe was out of hearing distance, Pete turned sharply towards Clark. "Where did _that_ come from?"

"I… don't know." Was it the red rock?

At that moment, Lana approached them wearing a green Beanery apron and a notepad in hand.

She smiled when she saw them. "Oh, hey guys! What can I get you?"

"Lana!" Clark said, "You work here? Well I'm just surrounded by beautiful girls today."

Pete gaped at Clark once again and Lana paused with a confused expression, unsure of how to react.

"I notice you're not wearing your necklace," Clark continued.

"Oh… yeah! Strict dress code at the Beanery." Lana smiled, regaining her composure slightly. "No loose hair or jewellery."

"You should stop wearing it," Clark said bluntly. "You look better without it."

"Uh…" Lana paused again, now genuinely taken aback. "Um… do you… why don't I just take your orders now?"

Clark leaned back and grinned, confident he had gotten through to Lana. "Hmm… I'll have a _hot_ chocolate, no whipped cream." He looked expectantly at Pete, who had been immersed in the conversation.

"Oh…" Pete shook himself awake, "I'll just have… a blueberry muffin."

"Ok." As soon as Lana had written down their orders, she darted away from the table.

"Clark, man, are you sure feeling alright?" Pete looked a bit concerned.

Clark grinned. "Pete, trust me, I've never felt better." He got up from his seat; he was starting to feel a little bored. "Well, I'm out of here."

"What about your hot chocolate?"

Clark shrugged. "Give it to Chloe. Tell her it's a gift."

Pete frowned. "But you haven't paid for it yet."

Clark gave him a devilish grin. "I didn't say it was a gift from me." Then he turned and briskly walked away before Pete had chance to protest.

As he wandered back outside, he began to think again: where could he go next? Smallville had to be the most boring place on Earth, and his friends didn't exactly make it any more fun.

He turned his head to look back down the street and for a moment glimpsed the distant Metropolis skyline. He vaguely recalled his last visit to Metropolis… that hadn't been too much fun. But he was stronger and faster now, and much, much more confident. He could handle the big city. Besides, it was just so much more _interesting _than Smallville.

Alright, Metropolis it was. With a grin, he began to gather speed, and headed off towards the distant lights that shone before him.

* * *

Jonathan was angry, alright. In fact, he was angrier than he had ever been at his son before. How dare he treat his own father so rudely? Hadn't he and Martha taught Clark about good manners? But after a good minute of fuming, he became a bit confused. Why was Clark acting this way? He had never been like this before.

Either way, he wasn't going to let him get away with such insolent behaviour. He stormed through the front door of his house and grabbed his jacket, beginning to pull it on. He was going to give his son a good, long lesson about manners.

Martha, who had been cleaning the living room, looked up in confusion. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"To find Clark," Jonathan responded angrily.

Martha straightened up and frowned. "Isn't he in the loft?"

"Not anymore." At Martha's look of confusion, Jonathan gave a small sigh and elaborated. "For God knows _what_ reason, Clark decided to ignore his chores and homework and run off somewhere. Now I'm off to bring him back home and give him a good talking to."

"Maybe you're overreacting, Jonathan," Martha reasoned. "Clark doesn't normally act this way. Maybe something's going on with him at school… or with his…powers." She said 'powers' quietly, like it was a bad word. "Considering everything that's happened to him recently… maybe he just needs a break."

"_Be that as it may_, Martha, he has _no_ excuse for talking so rudely to me!" Jonathan insisted, pulling his jacket on the rest of way and walking towards the front door. "If he wanted a break, wouldn't it have been easier to just _tell me _what's going on?"

"Sometimes that can be difficult," Martha responded, walking towards him. "Don't you think you'll get more out of him if you wait for him to come to you, instead of storming off angrily to confront him?"

Jonathan hesitated, his hand on the doorknob. He could see Martha's logic, but he was still incredibly angry at his son.

Martha continued. "Besides, you don't even know where he went. You could be looking around for hours. Don't you think it would be wiser to just wait until he comes home?"

Dammit, she was right, Jonathan realized. Maybe this really was pointless. His hand fell from the doorknob and he glared out the window. He turned back to Martha. "Fine… I suppose you're right." He paused. "But I promise you, when that boy comes home he's going to get an earful." Martha began to open her mouth, but Jonathan quickly cut her off. "I understand that _maybe_ something is going on… but he _still_ needs to respect his parents, no matter what."

Martha sighed. "Just don't be too harsh on him, Jonathan."

Jonathan gave a slightly restricted nod. He just had to calm down a bit. He headed outside to do some chores and wait for Clark to come home.

But several hours later, Clark still hadn't returned. Jonathan was starting to wonder what was going on, and Martha was beginning to worry.

"Why isn't Clark home yet?" Martha asked Jonathan, a bit of distress in the back of her voice.

"I don't know," Jonathan responded truthfully. "But we shouldn't worry. After all, he can't exactly get hurt easily."

Martha still continued to worry. "Now I'm really beginning to wonder what's bothering him so much. Jonathan, this is _very_ peculiar behaviour for him. Clark didn't even tell us where he went!"

"And that just means that we have _no_ idea where to go looking for him," Jonathan responded through gritted teeth. He was starting to get angry at Clark again. Where the hell _was_ he?

But Jonathan and Martha had no choice but to simply wait for him. After all, what else could they do? Martha grew more and more worried, and eventually Jonathan started to get worried too.

Nine o'clock turned into eleven o'clock, and eleven o'clock turned into midnight. Martha fell asleep on the couch but Jonathan stayed awake (well half-awake), glaring at the front door, waiting for it to open.

At 2:45 AM Jonathan finally fell asleep. He didn't mean to – he wanted to make sure Clark got home ok – but he was so tired he couldn't help it.

About half an hour later, Clark finally slipped through the front door and ran upstairs to his bedroom, grinning. He didn't even notice his parents sleeping in the living room.

He'd had probably the wildest night in his life. He had snuck into a club, flirted with women (yes women, not girls) and drank more alcohol than even he could keep track of (although admittedly, the alcohol seemed to have little effect on him). He took two wallets out of his jacket pocket and leafed through the money. Wow, these people had a lot of cash, but it was of course only to his advantage.

He had finally gotten tired, however, which was why he headed home. His bed beckoned him, and he fell onto it, still wearing all his clothes. He fell asleep almost immediately.

"Clark Kent!"

_What?_ Clark thought groggily. It was the morning, and sun was streaming through his curtains.

He lifted up his head to find both of his parents looking down at him with very angry expressions on their faces. He put his face back into his pillow and inwardly groaned.

"Do you have _any_ idea just how worried we were about you?" his mother admonished, her voice nearly hysterical. "You can't just _leave_ for twelve hours and not tell anyone where you went!"

Clark had been hoping to sleep in, maybe even skip class if he had to. But clearly that wasn't going to happen today.

"Clark!" his father pitched in angrily, yanking the blanket from his bed. "Get. Up. You are in a _world_ of trouble, young man."

Finally Clark turned around and sat up on his bed. Strangely, his parents' words didn't seem to have much of an effect on him. All he could think about now was how hungry he was.

"Just _what_ exactly could you have been doing that caused us to stay up so late on a _Tuesday night_?" His father asked angrily.

Clark stood up, still a bit tired. "Stuff," he responded noncommittally. He supersped downstairs and cut himself two slices of bread before his father could respond.

Too soon he could hear his parents storming down the stairs after him. He rolled his eyes.

"Clark!" his father shouted. "You don't get it off that easy! You need to take responsibility for your actions and give us a good reason for why you were gone for so long last night!"

Clark surveyed his father for a second. "Maybe I'll just have breakfast at the Beanery."

"The hell you will!" his father responded, now looking completely livid. "We are going to sit down and have a good, long talk about this new _attitude_ you've developed!"

"Well Dad, you can sit down and talk all you want, but I'm leaving." Clark turned towards the door.

Jonathan ran to the door and stood in Clark's way. "No, Clark. You're staying here until we figure out what's going on."

Clark smirked. "Oh really? Then make me." He pushed roughly past his father and began to head out the door.

In an attempt to keep Clark inside, Jonathan grabbed him by the shoulder and tried to pull him back. In an almost effortless motion, Clark jerked the side of his body and Jonathan went flying backwards, crashing into the wall. Clark gave a smug grin and supersped away.

"Jonathan!" Martha cried and raced towards her husband who was now grimacing in pain.

They both looked in shock towards the spot where Clark had disappeared. What was going on?

* * *

First period that day was science class. When Clark arrived the period was already half-over.

"Well, hello Clark, nice to see you so bright and early this morning," Mr. Summers remarked sarcastically.

"Oh thanks so much, sir," Clark responded, in an equally sarcastic manner. "You too."

Pete and Chloe exchanged a brief glance. Everyone in the class was confused by Clark's behaviour, even Mr. Summers, who frowned.

"Just sit down and get out your books," he snapped, "I'm in the middle of a lesson."

Clark shrugged and got out his textbook, but didn't really follow along.

Chloe turned around in her seat to face him. "What's up with you?" she whispered. "Why are you acting so weird?"

"Maybe it's the new me," he whispered back. "Do you like it?"

Chloe frowned. Was he flirting with her? "Clark, is everything… alright?"

Clark scowled, clearly annoyed by her comment. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"I –"

"_Excuse me_; am I interrupting your conversation?" They both looked up to see Mr. Summers looking down at them with an annoyed expression on his face. "If the both of you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my lesson."

"Yes sir," Clark responded sarcastically, although fortunately Mr. Summers didn't appear to catch his tone.

Chloe turned back to face the front of the classroom. She didn't really want to get in trouble, especially since detention with Mr. Summers was a drag.

But it wasn't long until Clark poked her in the back to get her attention.

"What?" she hissed under her breath.

"We should go out."

Chloe frowned. Was this really happening? Of course, she'd wanted this for so long, but this wasn't how she pictured Clark asking her out.

"Go out?"

Clark grinned. "Yeah, like on a date. I know that you want to."

Chloe turned pink. "Uh…"

"Didn't I already tell you two to be quiet?" Mr. Summers snapped, exasperated. "Can I not teach my lesson? Detention for the both of you, after school today!"

_Dammit_, Chloe thought, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

Clark stood up. "With all due respect, Mr. Summers, I'm not really interested in staying for detention."

Chloe turned and gaped at him, confused. She wasn't alone; the rest of the class was also giving Clark strange looks.

Mr. Summers paused, taken aback by the strange behaviour of his (normally) best student. "I really don't care what you're interested in! You're going to deal with the consequences of your actions!"

"Nah…" Clark grabbed his books and started to head out of class. It was a boring lesson anyways.

"Just where do you think you're going?"

"Well, out," Clark responded like it was obvious.

"If you walk out the door, you're going to be in a lot of trouble," Mr. Summers warned.

"Fine," Clark responded calmly, and promptly left the classroom.

* * *

Jonathan and Martha were shocked. It was clear to the both of them, now, that something was seriously wrong with Clark. No amount of personal issues could push him into acting this aggressively.

Martha looked at Jonathan fearfully. He was sitting on a chair at the kitchen table holding a frozen pack of peas over his bare shoulder. Whenever he moved his arm he winced, clearly in pain from the impact of hitting the wall.

"Why is he acting this way?" Martha asked Jonathan frantically, although she knew he didn't have the answer.

Jonathan shrugged, unable to come up with a good answer. "I really don't know…" He had his suspicions about Clark's behaviour, but desperately hoped he was wrong.

Martha spoke again, this time tentatively. "Do you think this is something to do with Clark's… heritage? Is this part of his development?"

She had just voiced Jonathan's fears. Something that he and Martha had been afraid of when they took Clark in was his nature. They'd tried to push him away from anything Kryptonian, but were his natural instincts finally starting to take over?

But no, it couldn't be. Jonathan wasn't quite ready to accept that. He didn't want to lose his son. It had to be something else… didn't it?

"I really hope not, Martha…"

* * *

Clark was bored and didn't really know what to do so he decided to head over to Lex's mansion.

Lex had a slightly puzzled expression on his face when Clark entered the room.

"I was surprised when the gatekeeper told me you were here. Don't you have school right now?"

"Yeah," Clark responded calmly. "Didn't feel like going."

Lex raised his eyebrows. "You 'didn't feel like going'. Since when have you just skipped class, Clark?"

Clark walked over to the pool table and took a perfect shot, sinking the ball he had been aiming for. He straightened up with a slight grin on his face. "I just learned to live a little… nothing wrong with that."

Lex leaned back in his chair and looked at Clark speculatively. "Well I can't say I disagree with you – I've had my own rebellious moments – but this is kind of strange coming from you." He leaned forward in his chair and folded his hands, now looking concerned. "Clark, is everything alright?"

Clark rolled his eyes. "You know, I've been getting that a lot recently. Sometimes, I don't want to be mild-mannered Clark Kent anymore… I just want to be someone interesting."

Lex frowned as he listened. As far as he was concerned, being someone 'interesting' was overrated.

Clark continued, "You see, Lex, you're lucky. You're surrounded by luxury. You have the freedom to do whatever you want. I wish I was like you. I hate living on a farm, being _poor_!"

Lex paused, and licked his lips while thinking of the words to say. "Clark… when you say I'm lucky… you don't know how wrong you are. Sure, I'm rich, but I never got to know what it was like to have parents that loved me. You have good parents, Clark, and I'm envious of that."

Clark, however, easily shook off Lex's comment. "My parents don't understand me. They'll never know what it's like to live my life."

"Why not?" Lex probed. "What could you be going through that's so different from when they were teenagers?"

Clark smirked. "A lot," he responded shortly.

Lex's face fell slightly. So Clark wasn't going to reveal anything interesting. Maybe he should just let Clark's parents know where he was… Clark could probably sort out any sort of issue he had with them better than he could with Lex.

Lex looked at his watch. "Uh, Clark? I have to leave for a meeting now… but you're welcome to stick around the mansion if you want."

He closed his briefcase and carried it with him towards the door before turning around to look back at Clark. "Just don't do anything you'll regret Clark. Trust me; I'm the expert on bad decisions." And he turned around and left.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Lex took out his cell phone and dialed the Kents' phone number.

* * *

It didn't take much effort for Clark to figure out that Lex was calling his parents. He was annoyed. He would have hoped Lex would be on his side. He checked his watch; it was just about lunchtime at school now. Good. He wouldn't have to deal with teachers.

He supersped out of the Luthor mansion and back to Smallville High. He meant to find Pete and Chloe again but on his way in, he spotted Lana arguing with Whitney over something. To his satisfaction, he noticed that Lana wasn't wearing her necklace. He grinned. The opportunity was just too good to pass up.

He approached them. "Hello," he said to Lana, ignoring Whitney, "is there a problem here?"

Lana appeared a bit tired and Whitney just looked plain annoyed. Lana faked a smile. "No," she said, pushing hair out of her face, "of course not. Everything's alright."

Whitney stepped in front of her. "What we talk about is none of your business, Kent."

"Whitney…" Lana tugged on his shirt, trying to pull him back.

"Really?" Clark challenged, a mocking expression appearing on his face. "Would have thought it was, with how loud you were arguing."

Whitney stepped up closer to Clark. "Do you really want to test me, Clark?"

"Stop," Lana pleaded, but nothing could break the tension between Whitney and Clark.

Clark simply raised his eyebrows, completely unafraid of Whitney's threat. He took a step forward and stared Whitney straight in the eye. "Yeah. I do."

"Fine." Whitney drew back his fist and punched Clark in the face.

Whitney let out a small cry of pain as his fist made contact with Clark. He withdrew his hand and shook it.

Clark grinned. He'd been craving a fight recently and now it was finally coming to pass. With both hands, he grabbed Whitney from the front of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. A small crowd was starting to gather.

Then he threw Whitney backwards with only a fraction of his strength, but it was still enough to send him flying hard into the ground.

Whitney hit the pavement with a grunt and lay on the ground, in too much pain to really move. Clark began to advance but Lana raced in front of him.

"Clark! What the hell!" she shouted, a disgusted expression on her face. "Get away from him!" She ran over to Whitney to make sure he was ok.

The crowd was larger now, all staring in awe at the strange scene: the senior football quarterback beaten up by a freshman.

Pete and Chloe arrived too, attracted by the crowd, and gaped at Clark. Something about his posture still looked threatening.

Chloe gave Pete a questioning look. What was going on with him?

"Uh oh. Trouble." Pete muttered, and discreetly pointed behind himself.

Chloe looked and gulped. The vice principal was advancing.

"What's going on here?" the VP asked loudly.

No one was brave enough to speak up, but as she broke through the crowd, the VP was able to figure out what had happened easily enough.

"Mr. Kent!" she called in a loud voice. "Come with me."

"No."

The vice principal raised her eyebrows, incredulous. "Excuse me?"

"No," Clark repeated.

"You don't have a choice in this matter," the vice principal returned curtly. "If you don't come with me right now, you're going to be suspended."

"Then suspend me," Clark said and started walking towards the exit of the school. The crowd parted before him, afraid of what he might do.

"Mr. Kent!" the VP shouted.

Clark ignored her and continued to walk away. The VP gritted her teeth and muttered a few words before briskly walking towards the school.

Chloe ran in front of Clark as he was walking away, blocking his path. "Clark, what the _hell_ is up with you? Do you want to be _suspended_?"

Clark grinned when he saw her, and ignored her words. "Chloe," he said, "just who I wanted to see. Let's get out of here."

Chloe frowned. "What? I'm not going to leave in the middle of school!"

"Why not?" Clark said, moving closer to her. "Come on, I promised you I'd take you out."

"Not right now!"

Clark began to look impatient. "I'm not going to give you any more chances, Chloe. Either you come with me now, or forget I ever said I liked you."

Chloe was speechless. She couldn't believe this was happening! Since when did Clark give such ultimatums? "Clark… I'm sorry." She gulped. "I can't leave right now."

Clark raised his eyebrows. "Wow Chloe," he said coldly, "you're not as brave as I thought." And he walked off, leaving Chloe wildly blinking away tears.

When he was out of sight, he supersped home. He was angry. Lex had betrayed him to his parents, Lana had been disgusted with him and Chloe had refused to leave with him. It seemed everything was going wrong!

In a rage, he punched into a pillar in the kitchen, sending splinters of wood flying across the room. He was going to show them all that he wasn't someone to be trifled with.

He supersped up to his bedroom and opened up his computer, searching for the image that he knew would put the whole town in a frenzy.

It shone in front of him on the screen, and he grinned.

* * *

Jonathan and Martha returned to an empty home. They had hoped to find Clark at Lex's mansion, but apparently he had already sped away by the time they arrived.

They didn't know what to do. They didn't understand the change that had come over Clark… all they knew is they wanted it to be over.

As soon as Jonathan walked in the front door he heard the phone ring and ran over to pick it up.

Martha listened curiously to Jonathan's end of the conversation as she saw a dark expression cross her face.

"Oh," he said. "I see."

As soon as he hung up the phone, Martha asked, "Who was that? What is it?"

Jonathan hesitated before he spoke. "Clark has been… suspended." Martha let out a low gasp. "…for injuring another student."

Martha had had enough of this; she was nearly in tears. Clark's behaviour had gone too far. "What's wrong with him, Jonathan? He's starting to act like… well… you know."

Jonathan finally spoke the words he had been avoiding all day. "Martha, it's a possibility that…maybe this _is_ part of Clark's development. I really hope I'm wrong but… what other explanation do we have?"

"So… what should we do?"

Jonathan had a lot of trouble getting his next few words out. "I think…I _hate_ even thinking about this but… I think we need to find a meteor rock."

* * *

Clark waited until dark, when no one would see him, and then supersped towards Smallville High. He was going to give his peers a message they would not soon forget.

He looked up at the big sign ahead of him. 'Smallville High School' it read, 'Home of the Crows'.

He grinned, and focused his heat vision on the sign. When he was done, he stood back to admire his work.

Instead of the usual cheerful lettering, the sign now bore a black burn mark… in the form of the Kryptonian symbol. The S within an irregular pentagon stood out starkly against the background of the sign.

Clark supersped away, grinning. That would give them something to be scared about. He was barely out of Smallville High, though, when he saw his father driving into the parking lot in his pickup truck. "Dad?" Clark returned to normal speed in front of the truck.

Jonathan saw him and braked just at the last minute. Clark walked towards the driver's side door, suddenly looking very threatening.

With a solemn expression on his face, Jonathan opened the door to face Clark… and suddenly Clark's knees buckled and he fell down.

Clark, not expecting his father to use the meteor rock, fell quickly and hit the ground with a hard thud. The red meteor rock bounced out of his pocket.

"Clark!" Jonathan shouted. "I don't want to do this! You need to stop hurting people!" He grimaced. It was painful for him to see his son writhing in pain.

Clark rolled into the fetal position, trying to withstand the pain. Now no longer under the influence of the red meteor, Clark could see things with a little more clarity. "Dad," he gasped, "please! It wasn't… me!" He groaned in pain and stretched his arm towards the red rock, trying to push it away from himself. "It was the… meteor rock!"

Jonathan frowned, looking at the red rock, and backed up a step. Now the pain was less. It was still there, but it didn't completely incapacitate him anymore.

Jonathan spoke slowly. "You're saying your behaviour is… because of this rock?" He was hesitant. He hoped what Clark was saying was true. Every second he saw his son suffering pained him.

"Yes!" Clark gasped. "Ever since I found it I've felt… different." Then he let out a cry of pain as the meteor exposure began to wear on him. "Please…" He gave his father a pleading expression. "Take away the meteor rock…"

Jonathan didn't need any more convincing. Every gasp he heard from Clark wore down his resolve to the point where he realized: he couldn't do this. He looked at the rock in his hands and then threw it, as hard as he could, in the opposite direction.

As soon as Jonathan threw the green meteor rock away, Clark scrambled away from the red meteor rock on his hands and knees. Jonathan rushed towards Clark and helped him up.

Once Clark was standing, he looked shamefully down at the ground. "I'm sorry," he said sadly. "I never meant to hurt anyone…you or mom or… Chloe."

"It's ok, son," Jonathan said, although he knew that he and Clark were going to have a talk later. "It wasn't your fault." He eyed the red meteor rock. "I'm going to find somewhere very far away to hide that rock," he muttered.

Silently, he and Clark got back into the truck and headed home.

In all the confusion, though, Clark didn't remember the damage he had done to the Smallville High sign until next morning.


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry for the total 4-month hiatus... promise I'm not going to ever give up on this story, I just have a tendency to stop writing when things get really busy. I'll try to cram as many updates into the next two weeks as possible. So... here's chapter 8, (or 7? or 9? I can't remember)**

The car trip home was silent. Clark stared straight ahead, guilty, not wanting to face his father. Jonathan just didn't know what to say. Somehow, "it's ok, son, we forgive you" didn't seem appropriate compared to the magnitude of the past few days' events. There was something bigger here that needed to be addressed, but Jonathan just couldn't quite find the words.

So they drove home in silence. Jonathan glanced over at Clark a few times, trying to speak, but Clark was staring determinedly out at the road ahead, clearly not wanting to confront the issue at hand. So Jonathan gave an internal sigh and looked back out at the road as well.

Everything still seemed like a bit of a jumble to Clark. Freshest in his mind was the feeling of the meteor rock. The exposure… it felt like several knives stabbing his sides and twisting around. Clark didn't recall having ever been so close to a meteor rock for so long… and he hoped to never have to experience that again. It felt like pure torture.

But of course the green meteor rock did achieve one important aim – it got the red rock away from him. He shuddered to think what he might have done if he had it any longer. The rock made one his worst fears come true – for a while, he became like the other Kryptonians, power-hungry and arrogant. It unleashed the worst side of him, a side that he never wanted to reveal, or even knew existed.

But when Clark had been exposed to the green meteor rock and the red rock had fallen out of his pocket, he'd mercifully been met with a moment of clarity. Perhaps it was his survival instinct pushing through, doing anything he could to get the meteor rock away from him… but it was only in the presence of the green meteor rock that Clark realized what the red rock had done to him. He'd appealed to his father, desperate and in pain, and his father had listened.

Of course his father had listened. Clark was worried that even if he'd still had the red rock in his pocket, his father would have eventually removed the meteor rock anyway, worn down by his own son's cries of pain… and then Clark, on the red rock, would be free again.

Thank goodness the rock had rolled out of his pocket.

Clark barely noticed when his father's truck pulled up in front of the farmhouse and stopped.

Jonathan finally turned towards him, although he had a hesitant expression on his face. "Clark, son, we need to talk about this. About what happened."

Clark gulped. He'd been repressing thoughts of the last few days. He didn't want to think about what had happened. But now he remembered he hurt people. He hurt… Lana, and Whitney and Chloe and… his father. He suddenly turned towards his father, eyes wide open, horrified. "I threw you against a wall…" he nearly whispered. "Are you… OK?" he asked tentatively.

His father gave a small frown. For the first time, Clark noticed a slight stiffness to his movements… like his shoulder was injured. "Don't worry, Clark," Jonathan reassured, "you didn't do any lasting damage. I'll be fine."

Clark looked down, guilt churning in his stomach. "I'm sorry," he whispered. He couldn't believe what he had done. He felt even guiltier as he recalled the feeling of hurting his father. It had felt almost… good, like he was finally seizing control of his life. Of course, that wasn't true. The red rock, in fact, had had the opposite effect – it took away his control.

Clark and Jonathan got out of the truck and headed towards the house. Martha rushed out the front door, looking immediately relieved to see her husband in one piece. When she saw Clark she looked apprehensive.

"Everything's back to normal," Jonathan reassured her, "more or less."

Martha let out a breath and ran up to hug him, and then she hugged Clark. She looked back and forth between Clark and Jonathan with concern on her face. "What happened?"

Jonathan and Clark exchanged a brief look. "It's a long story…" Jonathan said. "I'll tell you later." He had a feeling that Clark didn't want to relive what had happened, at least not tonight.

They headed inside. Jonathan turned towards Clark and opened his mouth to speak, but Clark cut across him.

"Dad…" Clark began slowly. "I get that we need to talk about what happened but… can we leave it until tomorrow? _Please?_ I just… I don't think I'm up to it tonight."

Jonathan gave a nod. "Alright, fine, but don't avoid this, Clark. Tomorrow morning we need to discuss what happened."

Clark nodded. He knew he'd have to face what he'd done eventually. But right now… it just seemed like too much. He just wanted a good night's sleep. He'd deal with what he'd done tomorrow. "Good night."

He headed upstairs, brushed his teeth, put on his pyjamas and got into bed… although it took him a long time to fall asleep. Things were becoming clearer now, memories sharper. He felt disgusted at himself, the way he had acted. He had disgusted Lana, hurt Chloe and his father… he had absolutely _relished_ in hurting Whitney. And now he remembered his discussion with the vice principal. Oh God, was he suspended? He began to panic, but told himself to calm down.

Clark lay in bed for four full hours, feeling guilty, unable to relax, until he finally managed to pass out due to pure exhaustion. But only a few hours later, the sun woke him up again.

Clark's parents were both downstairs, already eating breakfast. They looked up as he came down the stairs. A "good morning" was all he heard until he was sitting down at the kitchen table with his own breakfast. Then his father turned to him.

"So Clark," he began, "how did you find the red rock?" As Clark opened his mouth, Jonathan leaned forward in curiosity and Martha turned to listen in as well.

Clark let out a breath. His memories were clear now. "It was that geology field trip near Hob's pond. I found the rock just sitting there and I thought it was interesting so I picked it up… and that's when I started to feel, well, like I could do whatever I wanted." Clark paused. "Dad, when I picked up that rock, I had the urge to tell the whole world my secret."

Jonathan looked shocked. "But you didn't, did you?"

"No, I didn't tell anyone… but I wanted to." Clark shrugged. "I guess it just seemed… easier than keeping such a huge secret. It would have been a huge weight lifted off my shoulders… but then again…" He trailed off.

Jonathan looked at Clark sympathetically. It definitely had to be difficult, being in his position. But the red rock twisted things. Jonathan hesitated before asking his next question. "Just what have you been doing the past two days?"

Clark let out another breath. He really didn't want to reveal to his parents how he had acted. "Tuesday night I... I went to Metropolis. I snuck into a club, and I drank and I… stole some peoples' wallets."

Jonathan's mouth tightened. He looked like he was about to speak.

"I'll give them back!" Clark said quickly. "And I'll put back the money I took… from my own bank account."

Jonathan nodded stiffly. At least Clark understood the consequences of his actions. "What about yesterday? … How did you get… suspended?"

There was a pause. For a good, five long seconds, no one spoke. Clark gulped, not quite sure what to say. "I… it was Whitney Fordman, you know… Lana's boyfriend?"

Martha and Jonathan exchanged a brief look. Clark had always had a bit of an infatuation with Lana.

Clark took a deep breath and continued. "Whitney and Lana were having a fight so I thought that I would… interject… and I ended up ticking off Whitney to the point that he punched me, so… I fought back… a bit." He avoided making eye contact with his parents.

Martha's eyes widened and she looked a bit faint, and Jonathan's jaw tightened. Jonathan closed his eyes for a second and struggled to keep his voice calm. "You didn't… Whitney isn't… is Whitney OK?"

For a moment, Clark felt almost on the verge of tears. "I don't know," he responded quietly, "I left right after… but, I didn't use all of my strength… I think he's ok…" _I hope he's ok._

"I really hope so, Clark," Jonathan said through gritted teeth. "As soon as you see Whitney again, you are going to _apologize_ to him, and apologize to Lana too."

Clark looked down in shame.

This time Martha spoke. "Your father said he found you at your high school. What were you doing there?"

It took Clark less than a second to recall the memories, and as he finally thought about his visit to Smallville High his eyes opened in shock. How could he have forgotten such a huge thing? He'd been too focused on feeling guilty for how he'd treated people… what they were going to think of him… he'd somehow pushed last night's events completely out of his mind.

It was nearly 7:30… teachers would already be arriving in school… it was too late to clean up the damage. With a gulp, Clark realized that the students of Smallville High were going to get quite a shock when they arrived at school this morning.

He looked up at his parents urgently and saw shock mirrored in their eyes. He gulped. "Mom, Dad… I think I did something very bad."

* * *

Chloe stared out of the window on the bus ride to school, thinking about Clark. A really dramatic change had come over him – what could have caused something like that?

She was thinking about the way he talked to her – what he _said_ to her. He said he liked her, he really did. She'd been wishing for that for so long and it had finally become a reality.

But then in that shocking moment after he had fought with Whitney, he had taken it all back… just because she wouldn't ditch school with him. Of course, it would have been really stupid for her to skip class… she was in trouble with Mr. Summers already and she didn't want to make things even worse.

And yet… something inside of her regretted her decision to stay. Maybe if she had left with Clark, something could have happened between them. Had she made the wrong decision?

Then again, she was now a bit apprehensive around Clark, maybe even a bit afraid of his behaviour. Clark Kent didn't ever hurt people… and yet he had. Was he perhaps a bit… unstable? After yesterday's events, she was a little worried that could be true.

The bus came to a stop in front of Smallville High and Chloe was shaken out of her thoughts. The students unloaded from the bus.

As soon as she got off the bus, Chloe knew there was something wrong.

There was a huge crowd of students swarming the front of the school, as usual, but they were all abnormally quiet. Chloe frowned. What was going on?

She didn't realize at first that they were all looking up at something. And then she finally looked up and saw it, and her whole body went numb.

A big black S enclosed in a pentagon stood out starkly against the white school sign. It looked exactly like the one that had been burned into the ground in San Francisco so long ago. Chloe's mind was racing. What could this mean? Had Kryptonians really returned or was someone just playing a sick joke?

But the burn marks looked almost expertly done, formed of perfectly straight lines that would take a meticulous amount of work for any human to create… could it really be Kryptonians?

No, no, of course not, she told herself. It wasn't… it _couldn't_ be. They'd been gone for so long… why would they suddenly come back?

But as she stared up at the burn marks, fear gripped her and she began to panic. What if they'd come back? What if they were going to destroy the world? What was going to happen?

Oh god, was the Kryptonian who made this mark here right now? She looked around and saw she was surrounded by a swarm of people… easy pickings, she thought, and her stomach dropped. Everyone around her was just gaping at the sign, as she had been mere seconds ago. Didn't they realize it was dangerous here? They had to leave!

She forced herself to calm down. There was clearly no one flying in the air, no one poised to kill them all. And if there was, wouldn't he or she have done that already?

What if this was just a warning? A warning of yet another invasion to come? She couldn't believe this was happening! She'd been born _after_ the Kryptonian invasion… she didn't expect she'd ever have to deal with anything like this!

Her stomach was churning. She felt on the verge of hyperventilating. People near her were crying.

She heard a sharp wail and turned to see a fire truck turning into the school parking lot. Clearly someone had panicked and dialed 911. As she looked that direction she noticed a number of other vehicles arriving in the vicinity as well. There were a number of police cars and also several vans unloading television crews. This was a big deal. She looked up again at the burn marks, wondering, with a feeling of utter dread, what was about to happen to the world… again.

* * *

Jonathan frowned, now extremely apprehensive. "What did you do…?" He almost didn't want to hear the answer.

Clark meanwhile looked once again on the verge of tears. It took him a while to start speaking. Jonathan exchanged a very worried look with Martha.

"I…" Clark began, then in a small voice, "I really don't want to tell you."

Jonathan grabbed his shoulder. "Clark, son, we're your parents. We'll still love you no matter what."

Clark responded, in a quiet voice, "You're not going to love me after I tell you what I did."

Jonathan and Martha exchanged another look. Martha spoke up. "Clark… trust me, talking things out will make you feel better. And then we can figure out how to fix whatever happened."

"Fix what happened?" Clark exclaimed suddenly. "I wish! I wish I could erase the last twenty-four hours! No, just the last ten hours! There's no fixing what I did!"

His parents were silent, waiting for him to continue. There was a long pause, and finally Clark spoke.

"I… I was angry yesterday… because nothing was going the way I wanted it to and after I knocked down Whitney everyone was just staring at me like some sort of freak, and face it, I am, and Chloe didn't want to come with me…" He took a deep breath. He'd been starting to speak very quickly. "I just… I don't know… I guess I just felt isolated and I felt like everyone had turned on me – although they didn't, that was just the red meteor rock – and so I wanted to, well, I guess… give everyone something to… to… um, something that would make them… afraid." He said the last word in a small voice and hung his head. He felt completely disgusted with himself. He wished he had never done that in the first place, and now to relive it… it was almost unbearable. He felt a lump forming in his throat.

Jonathan cocked his head, now really dreading whatever Clark was about to say. He was praying that Clark was making a big deal out of a small thing; unfortunately he didn't believe that was the case. "Define… afraid."

Clark gulped. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse. "When it got dark outside, I went to Smallville High and –" Here it was. The moment he had to finally admit what he had done. But the words refused to come out of his mouth.

He tried again. "I…" Still, he just couldn't speak. He felt like he was going to cry. He could see all the worried looks his parents were shooting each other. They were going to hate him. They were going to disown him. No one would ever love him.

Come on, he told himself, get a grip. He was being silly. But he needed to come clean. And there was no doubt about it; his parents were going to be horrified by the next few sentences to come out of his mouth.

He finally spoke, slowly. "I… I went online and I looked up a picture of that… mark or sign or whatever that… Zor-El burnt into the ground. And then I… then I…" he took a deep breath, "I went to the school and I used my heat vision to… to… well, I think you already know," Clark concluded quietly, observing his parents' horrified expressions.

"You what?" Martha asked faintly, falling into a chair. The question was clearly rhetorical.

Clark didn't say anything. He refused to make eye contact with either of his parents. Jonathan was just staring off into the distance, not sure what to do or say or even think.

There was a whoosh of air, and Martha and Jonathan both looked up to see that their son was gone.

* * *

Pete was in pure and total shock. He couldn't believe the sight before his eyes as he showed up to school that day. He almost felt sick.

The black burn marks were perfectly placed; high up enough so that you could see them no matter where you stood. Too high to be within anyone's grasp; too difficult to destroy and entirely impossible to ignore.

Bad memories flashed through Pete's head; his mother crying, his father trying to comfort her to no avail. The way she acted… like a time bomb; one minute she would be happy and smiling and then the smallest thing would set her off. He knew why she acted that way, and it had everything to do with that symbol up there, mocking him.

And he was seized, for a moment, with a feeling of utter rage. He wanted to race up to that sign and tear it down with his bare hands. His nostrils flared with sudden determination. But then he realized that he wasn't strong enough… he was just a human and whoever made this mark could defeat him before he could even blink. But… he couldn't help it… he was itching to _do_ something! To make this situation better _somehow_. But he didn't know how.

At that moment he saw Chloe weaving through the crowd, making a beeline towards him. He couldn't really decide whether or not he wanted to see her, but soon enough she made his decision for him.

"Pete!" Her eyes were wide. She was as shocked as he was. "Can you believe this?" she whispered.

Pete just shook his head; he didn't think he was capable of speech right now.

"Do you think it's… real?" Chloe asked hesitantly.

Pete pondered for a moment. He had never really considered that it might be a prank. It _could_ be, he thought. Please, please, let that be true. A sick person with a twisted sense of humour was a million times better than a Kryptonian… on a good day.

"I really, really hope so," he muttered.

There was a pause as they both stared up at the sign again. Suddenly Pete wondered, "Where's Clark?"

"He's suspended, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Pete frowned. That was just weird. He wondered how Clark would react when he saw this. As far as he knew, Clark's family didn't have any really bad history with Kryptonians… but what did he really know? People didn't exactly open up about this sort of thing. Everyone here was suffering.

"Look Pete," Chloe began nervously, breaking him out of his thoughts. "I think we should go. I seriously doubt there'll be school today and standing here… near this sign… it's just making me a little nervous."

Pete's stomach churned. He turned to Chloe with wide eyes. "Do you… do you think…?"

Chloe swallowed. "Pete, I don't really know what's going on any more than anyone else here." Her voice sounded a little hoarse. "But I just want to get out of here. Other people are leaving." Pete looked around and noticed, true to her words, people were getting into their cars and driving away. "Besides, I'm sure our parents will want us home."

"Our parents…?"

"Pete, look at all the cameras. Anyone who owns a television set will know what's happened by now."

"How will we get home, though? Neither of us can drive."

Chloe frowned. "Well my house is about a half-hour-ish long walk from here, I think. We can go there now and then maybe you can call your parents with my phone."

Pete nodded. He agreed with Chloe… he just wanted to get out of there.

Nearly an hour later, they finally arrived at Chloe's house. As soon as they reached the driveway, Chloe's father raced out of the house and hugged her. "Chloe!" he exclaimed. "As soon as I heard the news I drove straight to the high school but you weren't there! I was so worried!"

"I'm fine, Dad," Chloe said, shrugging him off a bit. "I think Pete should call his parents, though, because they're probably worried about him too."

"Oh yeah, sure… I mean, of course!" Chloe's father smiled, a bit flustered. He beckoned them both inside the house then gave Pete the phone.

"You should see the news," Chloe's father said. "Everyone on the news stations are completely panicked. That's why I was so worried."

Chloe's curiosity was piqued. She picked up the remote and turned on the TV, to find herself once again laying eyes on the ominous burn marks. There was now a huge crowd of people at Smallville High, and it wasn't so silent anymore. People were crying, some people were running here and there and some stood stock still, petrified like she had been at first. Even the reporter behind the screen, although maintaining a business-like composure, seemed shaken-up.

"… seen here, the ominous symbol representing the Kryptonians was burned into the sign for Smallville High School. There is speculation as to whether this marking was made by a real Kryptonian or is merely a practical joke. The school has been temporarily shut down, and parents are swarming the area, bringing students home. So far, there has been no sign that a Kryptonian is present at the high school, but the residents of Smallville are on fearful lookout.

"Meanwhile, news of the Kryptonian sign has already spread across the country, and worldwide. Our correspondent, Karen Smith, has news from New York City. Karen?"

The television screen now showed a new image in New York City. Crowds of people stood, looking almost distraught as those who had the misfortune of being at Smallville High this morning. People were shouting, people were crying… it seemed on the tipping point of erupting into chaos.

"As you see, the residents of New York City are just as shocked by this morning's events as are the residents of Smallville. In fact, the entire world is reeling from this morning's events. The question that people are asking themselves is: 'are we really going to have to deal with another Kryptonian invasion? What will happen to the world?'"

Whoa, Chloe thought. She hadn't realized that this had gotten so big. But of course it would. The problems Kryptonians posed obviously concerned the entire world, so with the overhanging threat of another invasion, the entire world was obviously concerned. This was definitely a big deal. She gulped.

* * *

It hadn't taken long for Lex to hear the news. He was quite well connected after all.

The first thing Lex thought though, when he heard what happened wasn't 'why did this happen' or 'is this a scam' or 'are we are all going to die'. No, the very first thought that popped into his head when he sawed that burned sign was: 'why Smallville?'

And why Smallville indeed. It made no sense. If the Kryptonians were attacking the Earth again, wouldn't they go somewhere a little more exciting? Most people in the world didn't even know that the little town existed… at least not until that day. Maybe this attack on Smallville was supposed to be ironic in some way… but Lex didn't get it (and he was pretty sharp, too).

But one thing he couldn't deny was that a whole ton of strange things seemed to happen in Smallville. He'd done his research… he knew all the strange stories circling around Smallville (although most of these stories were blamed on his Luthorcorp plant). There had always been something a bit bizarre about this little town. And now _this_ happened? There had to be some sort of connection.

Lex knew he should be terrified. But, god help him, he was just intrigued. He wouldn't… _couldn't_really get scared until he had definitive proof that the Kryptonians were back. After all, he'd never had bad experiences involving Kryptonians. He'd been born after the invasion, and his parents had known how to hide away expertly while the Kryptonians were on Earth. To Lex, the Kryptonians had been virtually a fairy tale, and he wasn't going to just get scared now. For now, he just wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery.

He'd just gotten back recently from a meeting and was preparing to sit down and ponder for a bit, when a security guard entered his office.

"Mr. Luthor?" Lex looked up. "You have a visitor."

"Who is it?" Lex asked.

"Your father."

* * *

Clark stared at the ceiling. He didn't want to think about what had happened, but there was no escaping it. Well, he definitely felt like a Kryptonian now. As much as he wanted to deny it, he knew how big of an impact his decision last night would make on everyone. Would it impact the entire world? A small thing like that couldn't… could it? But it wasn't really a small thing, was it? It was a very, very big thing.

He realized, with a horrible shock, what was probably happening right now. He'd given everyone a reason to think that Kryptonians were on Earth (which was true). The entire world could be in a panic right now! He had to get rid of the sign before it was too late!

In a spur of the moment decision, he supersped to Smallville High, but once he got there, he realized it was already too late.

There were numerous TV crews, police cars, even a fire truck and ambulance strangely enough, and also a huge crowd of distressed people. He could see the Smallville High from way back from the trees he'd supersped into (although he did suppose he had quite good vision). The burn marks stood out boldly against the white background. They really did look threatening.

And now, not under the haze of the red meteor rock, Clark understood the implications of what he had done. He was one of the few people in the world right now who knew there was _not_ going to be a Kryptonian invasion… but of course he couldn't tell anybody why. The world would panic for several months (years? Clark really hoped not) until they realized that nothing was happening.

He couldn't believe he had done this! He had never wanted the world to fear him… he just wanted to fit in! And then he'd gone and done _this_? At least he still had his anonymity. But the guilt was killing him. He almost wanted to go in front of that whole crowd and confess. But of course that would probably make things worse.

As much as he wanted to be, he wasn't human. As much as he felt like one and even generally acted like one, he just… wasn't one. Before he'd thought that he was just physically Kryptonian and had the mind of a human, but now he wasn't so sure…

That red rock didn't affect him physically, like the green meteor rock… it affected his mind instead. But he had to wonder… how exactly had the red rock affected him? As far as he could recall, it didn't change his opinions. He had definitely wanted to knock down Whitney… just to get a little payback for the times Whitney had been rough on him. He had wanted to ask out Chloe, who he'd been starting to like recently. He had even, in a way, wanted to mouth back at Mr. Summers for being such a boring teacher.

So the red meteorite hadn't exactly changed his opinions, had it? It just removed his inhibitions. So that meant that somewhere, deep down, he must want to reveal himself… to let everyone know he was a Kryptonian. And he admitted that he really did want to stop lying… to just be himself, who he was born as, instead of a lie. He kind of wanted to just _be_ a Kryptonian, instead of pretending to be a human… and that desire scared him a little bit.

It was that particular desire that had gotten him into this mess. And it had gotten him to doubt his humanity, too. Could he even be human if he wanted to be a Kryptonian?

At the same time, he didn't exactly want to go around killing people either, and he just wanted to fit in. It was all so frustrating. What did he really want? He just wished that none of this had happened.


End file.
